Napkin #1
I was riding on a plane reading a book about Tom Friedman. I was given a napkin with my softdrink. I immediatly began to strudy it. The drawing was made by letting the pen sit on the napkin until it seaped through to the other layers. I then unfolded the napkin.
Rotation Bloom
This drawing was made with a ruff formula. I had done some small experiments but couldn’t predict the outcome of the work. I began by picking a random point on stencil of a right traingle. I then nailed that point to the center of the paper. I traced and rotated the triangle eight times to make an eight part symmetry. I then flipped the triangle over and lined it up to the ones I’d already traced. Using the same nail hole, I repeated the process of tracing the triangles. This time I had to trace it 64 times. I did this over and over, using a different point each time. The result is a complex radial symmetry created by 8 smaller overlapping 8 sided symmetries.
Billow
Billow was made with a single stroke. I put the pencil to the center of the page and rotated my shoulder keeping my elbow at about a 90’ angle. As I worked I changed my orientation a little moved the page around to make the circular form.
Buddhist Delight
A meal I would often get at a Chinese restaurant was called a Buddhist Delight. I unfolded the carry-out container one day and was struck by the way the creases ressembled the design of Tibetan rugs. I then glued the rice I got with the meal to the container attempting to mimic the ornate quality of those rugs.
In beginning this piece, I realized there was a tremendous amount of irony in what I was doing. I have all these assumptions about Chinese culture which may or may not be correct. Many have been perpetuated by Chinese restaurants themselves. My goal was to overcome my misperceptions by working myself into an intense meditative state. I was trying to experience empathy with Buddhist monks when they reach a state of satori in making mandalas. I probably would have failed anyway but it was the irony of what I was doing that seemed to prevent me from reaching this state. The more I worked, the more contradictory the piece became. When I finished the piece I came to view the irony as a type of meditation. A clearity was reached where it was impossible to gain any more insight into what I was doing or thinking.
Ware
Ware was the first piece (in what I’m calling my mature work) where I did not stick to a strict system in it’s creation. The only rules followed were the radial motif and the even placement of the hardware. At the time I was apprenticing for John Powers. This work was heavily influenced by working with him. I began with the single largest screw in the center. I then worked out from there, responding to the elevation, size, and directional changes of each additional layer.
Focus
When I was working on Focus someone asked me what I was making. My response was “this”. Two identical 9.6ft x 5ft ovals were outlined on the ceiling and floor. 36 steal hook were placed equangularly around the perimeter of each oval. The hourglass effect is produced by each color of monofiliment being given a different multiplication function. Example: every red colored monofiliment will be strung 7 hooks across from one oval to the other continualy until it comes full circle. When focusing on the piece you tend to notice repetitive patterns of reflections rather than a single point of interest. You focus on light not matter. The patterns of reflected light change with the movement of the viewer. What you see is only altered by the light that makes it visible. The intricate structure, the odd eliptical shape, and the placement between two floors gives a wide variety of viewing options.
Focus was commissioned by Riverplace in Greenville South Carolina. I thank them for all of their support.
String Mural #1
This mural was composed of two parallel lines of 40 nails each, “points”, on the top and bottom of the rectangle. I then connected every nail to every other nail with monofilament, creating a dense pattern. The rectangle was painted black to create some contrast, allowing you to see the lines. This piece was originally a drawing. The drawing was a robust network where everything is in direct connection with everything else. While the drawing illustrates this phenomenon, the mural demonstrates it. As you walked by the piece the patterns of light reflecting off of the strings adjusted to your movement. This piece brought my work into three dimensions and led to many more investigations.
String Mural #2
String Mural # 2 is a variation on String Mural # 1 and was installed at the same location in the South Hall Basement of Pratt Institute. The construction method is similar. Every point is connected to every other points. How the points are plotted will determine what patterns emerge and how the light will react to the strings. In this case, the points were plotted in a circle so the strings converged to make concentric rings. The light reflecting off of the monofilament created arcs of highlights, like ripples in water.
Tension and Integrity
This was a collaborative project between myself and Pierre Ahlstrom. It was a temporary installation in a tiny room in the South Hall basement at Pratt Institute. The structure was supported by two 5×5 grids of monofilament. The intersections acted as “points”. Every point was connected to every other point with monofilament. The result was a 3-dimensional structure where different patterns form at every angle.
The process of making this piece required one person to lie on the ground and line up two intersections by eye. Unlike previous pieces, a lot of weaving was involved. Once the points were lined up, a thin dowel would be passed through the piece, leaving the rest of the monofilament undisturbed. Then the spool of fishing line was passed through the opening. It became apparent that the grid was compressing from all of the tension. The solution was to add weights on the bottom intersections to tighten the strings.
Notice
Notice was in installed in collaboration with my friend Matt Gilbert. It is located at the entrance of the Sakas Theatre for the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities. The piece is composed of 64 screws placed equiangular on the perimeter of 12ft/7ft oval, tilted and painted white. Every nail is connected to every other nail with monofiliment. The piece mimics the interconnectivity of the school, something I experienced as a visual arts major in the inaugural class. It was titled Notice because it is meant to surprise and interest visitors to the Sakas Theatre, and spark some observation. I’m told that many students of the Governor’s School like to spend time with the piece too.
Mural at 188 Franklin, R.I.P.
The structure used for this piece is the same one I used in Mural #1 and Hark. I made the piece outdoors to see the ways in which sunlight would react with it. The piece changed throughout the day depending on the direction and the amount of sun.
I wanted people to discover this piece accidentally. It was constructed on a fence that separated my old appartment 188 Franklin Ave from an empty lot. The apartment was soon to be demolished so new apartments could be built, which are now being constructed. The piece marked a moment of change while drawing attention to a greater constant.
Hark!
Hark was installed for my undergraduate senior show at Pratt Institute. It was up for one week. In the gallery there was a row of columns, two of which bracketed the entrance as you entered. These supports created the necessary parallel lines to repeat the structure I utilized in Mural # 1. I used four colors of monofiliment. I designed it so that they stayed seperate and saturated towards one column and gradually blended together as they reached the other. As you walked by the piece, colors appeared and vanished. Patterns of light changed with your movements. Through the piece you could see other work in the show and other people experiencing the phenomenon from the opposite angle. The hope that I had for this piece was to raise awareness, not to the act of looking at art, but to the phenomenon of seeing.
Nimbus
Nimbus is composed of a grid of points repeated and rotated three times. The resulting moire pattern was filled with screws and nails of different sizes. I used larger hardware where points would overlap.
Berkely String Construct
I constructed this piece in Berkely California. This piece is unique in that the fence provided the same support structure I’ve utilized in previous pieces. The piece relies on existing architecture as a formula for complexity. I’m elaborating on what is present. This piece is easier to distroy than it is to make unlike most work created in the context of the street. The process makes little noise and significantly cuts down on construction time.
My Living Room Floor
I tiled my living room floor with lenoleum for functional reasons and because I want to be surrounded by things I desire to see and think about. I chose 4 different colors of 1ft square tiles. I cut the tiles diagonally, making right triangles. I then cut those in half, making an assortment of sizes. I started tiling in the center of the room and worked my out. My apartment has many of the original details (such as crown molding, medalions, and stained glass) that were common in pre-war buildings, one of the reasons I chose to live here. By tiling the floor in this manner I’ve tried to shift the focus of someone entering my place back to these details.
Landing
Landing was created on the roof of my apartment in Crown Heights Brooklyn. The piece is composed of 54 nails surrounding a rounded triangular shape that has been painted white. The nails have oxidized and become an umber color. I used different colored monofiliment to create a gradation from warm colors on the exterior to cool colors in the center. Asphalt on the roof that has been kicked up by rain has begun collecting around the perimeter of the piece, creating another unexpected gradation. Throughout the day the piece takes on many appearances. At noon it is a blinding pattern of reflected light. When it is in the shade it looks more like a tricky airbrush technique. Over time it will take on many more appearances, eventually dissipating. I’m exploring whether art carries meaning if made and seen in relative isolation. My ideal scenario for someone viewing Landing is accidentally, like coming upon a species of flower you have never seen before in a place you are familiar with.
Lexi on a Tangent #1 & #2
I began this drawing by tracing the profile of a friend of mine. I then fallowed the profile by drawing straight lines tangent to one another, creating the various curves. These two pieces where partially inspired by my writing on the parabola.Tim Hawkinson's Mid-career Retrospective
Tim Hawkinson’s mid-career retrospective at the Whitney is daunting in its thematic variation. Through the show he elaborating on himself. His own body is the starting point for transformation or translation, the inevitable elapse of time, and the meticulous measuring and documenting of the banal and everyday. Every piece is referential either to Hawkinson or to itself. His work never hides the way in which it is made and the materials do not seem substantial enough to perform their tasks, yet they do. Like the piece, “Spin Sink (1rev./100years), 1995” where the texture of corduroy is turned into the teeth of gears. By minimally being altered, these household materials retain their integrity. The potential this reveals reaches beyond Hawkinson’s work to all unappreciated junk we surround ourselves with. His mechanical appropriations are extensions that faithfully reproduce aspects of himself, like the signing of his name in “Signature, 1993” or the changing facial expressions in “Emoter, 2002”.
However, he seems to lose all of his magic when he works with traditional materials i.e. drawing and painting. It is as if he is trying to represent what his other work actually shows you.
A unique aspect of Hawkinson’s curatorship are the footnotes under each piece that tell you not only the materials, but how the object was made or what the mechanical components do. These footnotes are how Hawkinson talks to his audience. When his body is involved the particular order of operations is described. “I stood in front of a full legnth mirror, nose to nose, and sculpted my reflection to the glass.” It is fun to watch faces react when reading these details; they are now in on his secret joke. Others were opposed to reading. While a lot of contemporary art suffers from being rather inaccessible, this show thrived on its accessibility. Anyone, artist or not, can come and understand if not appreciate this work. I left this show, my imagination churning, if aluminum foil could be made into elephant skin, anything seems possible.
parabola
I search for complex order which is created through individual parts acting selflessly towards the benefit of keeping a whole in equalibreum. In creating my work, I am laying down the foundations to find my own place in the whole and giving the viewer their position as seen by me.
The parabola provides an example for the kind of order I’m searching for. It is a structure that is made of straight lines tangent that intersect to form a curve. If you think of each line as a moment in time, the intersection of two lines would represent change. If you think of the parabola as a life line, the first line would represent conception, and the last line would represent death. The first line is also a mirror image of the last line, going in the exact opposite direction. Everything in between is your life experience. These lines extend off into infinity suggesting the immeasurable amount of things one person influences and is influenced by. Everything is interdependent.
The present is not measurable, so my parabola would have an infinite number of lines. And if this were the case, there would be no difference in the angle of the lines or you would not be able to detect the difference. Also, the lines would condense to the point of becoming tone and what you would have in the end is a curve suggested by the connection of two shapes which contradict and create each other. This positive/ negative reversal denotes your life experiences and the outside forces that have shaped it.
The parabola is a natural phenomenon that repeats itself endlessly in nature. The trajectory of objects when projected into the air is the most common. Take the perfect curve created by a rocket when fired to its chaotic destination for example. The unpredictability of this action juxtaposed with the parabola that preceeds impact is metaphorical of the illogical nature of birth and death. Life (or the arc) I believe can be understood. It is the beginning and the end that are unknowable.
