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The Center Holds, 2010 vellum paper, colored stapeles, steel wire 96" tall Designed for and installed at the Continental Bldg. in downtown Los Angeles for SHFT Pop-Up Gallery |
| This venue offered a uniquely enticing opportunity to fabricate an imaginary inhabitable respite. A dusty, unused corner of an empty building is certainly one of the most ubiquitous architectural environments. As such, it recedes into the collective background. Its passersby ignore not only each other as they walk along, but also the space they are collectively inhabiting. The Center Holds addresses all of these concerns by utilizing a familiar domestic medium, paper, in a way that addresses the micro and macro nature of movement. The Center Holds is made up of thousands of cut, folded, and stapled paper elements. Each piece has tens of elements that act as feathers/fingers/branches. The cut-paper's protean quality creates a fantastical sphere into which viewers can enter or onto which they can project their own discoveries and beliefs. The relationship between the cut-paper's physical lines and their alter-ego shadows adds to the theatricality. All elements are connected, each aspect modulated by the subtle movement of the whole. This connectedness is crucial to the work. Abraham Maslow, in his development of the Hierarchy of Needs of the individual, remarked that true self-actualization occurs not just in the meeting of one's own needs, but in the desire to want to help others. Just like The Center Holds, we humans are indeed all connected, all modulated by the subtle movement of the whole. | |
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