Someday after we have mastered the winds, the waves, and gravity, we will skillfully harness the energies of love; and then for a second time in the history of the world, human beings will have discovered fire.--Teilhard de Chardin
A multi-part installation, Catch + Release (1) is comprised of a series of painting assemblages, primarily graphite, oil and powdered pigment on mylar (each approx 71 x 30 inches) attached by tiny magnets to iron frameworks (2 inches deep);
Catch + Release (2) is a series of very short video vignettes –ad hoc assemblies of disparate images and narration.
These two parts are connected by a large video projection of a bonfire.
In Vermont people designate a winter jacket to be worn to the bonfire; over the years the sparks burn holes. The warm embrace of a fire burning all night long, the violent pulse of flames, the scattering of ash – one’s mind wanders.
Formal with the weight of the iron framework, they seem to have been placed a bit high on the wall. Bits of copper catch the light. The face can seem full of energy, like some piece of battered metal but strong, and then tentative and vulnerable–translucent in parts. There is tension as the magnets stretch the surface and hold one part to the other.
Each begins with the same introduction of the bonfire (have I seen this before?) and then spirals into a short burst of exploratory memory or obsessive thought. The space between image and text invites a further reckoning.
excerpt from Chapter 4, Catch+Release.
EXHIBITION HISTORY
Pierre Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC Canada (2018)
Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro Vermont (2019)