Monday, January 13, 2014

Residency 2

I just back from my second residency last night, and it's amazing to compare how different the experience was. The first residency was so overwhelming in so many ways, but at least for this one, I felt much more prepared for what I was getting into. Overall, people seemed to really understand my work in the ways I wanted them to. I feel like I'm in a good place, while knowing there is always room to develop. 

These are some pictures of my work in my display space during the residency:





As you can see, I brought one very large print (second image). Sometimes I jump into something and don't realize exactly what I've gotten into until it's too late. This print ended up being 6x21 feet. It was printed in three segments, which I then taped together. It took 6 hours to complete printing, and 4 hours to assemble. Due to weather, our first day was cancelled and I ended up assembling these three pieces in my hotel room. This involved a scrolling kind of technique, as shown below:


Originally, I planned to display this piece with the lower portion flat on the floor (similar to how the first image is, though the lower portion would extend much further). My thought was that it would really give the viewer the impression they could actually enter the space. When I was assembling it, however, and saw the lush curves of the paper, I felt I wanted to display it this way, with the paper rippled. I presented it both ways, and most of my critiques reinforced that this curved way was a good decision, making the piece more of an object and adding to the surreal illusion. Ideally, I would display all of the images in this sort of format, but for practical reason, I brought the rest of the work in smaller forms.