Currents
Holly Fay
February 9th– March 29th,
Water is the universal transport medium of life, performing essential roles on massive and minute scales. All water present at the beginning of the planet is present today, cycling through and over the earth, moving through the sky, and moving through all the planet’s beings. Water unequivocally demonstrates the interconnectivity of all natural phenomena.
Focusing on the properties and states of water, Currents explores notions of cycle and flow within this abiotic component of the ecosystem.
In the large-scale works included in Currents, subtle layers of graphite (a form of carbon—the other element on which all life is based) were applied to the surface of the paper in a succession of building up, lifting, and reapplying. Created through additive and subtractive manipulations of layered graphite, forms are void of defined boundaries or contours, evoking fluidity and continual flux. Linear marks in the picture plane propose the multidimensional aspects of physical space and the transitory qualities of water, energy, and movement. The drawing process is a means to visually conceptualize the wonder present throughout this underpinning of the natural world.
Accompanying the large-scale drawings are smaller works on paper (Water Graphs series) which were completed in open air in concurrency with rain, snow and ice. Media applied to paper is exposed to rain, frost, humidity, or snow, or a succession of these. The resulting exquisitely patterned watercolour and graphite works mark the presence and actions of precipitation within the time frame the papers are exposed. Respectively, dates and the form of precipitation are recorded in the title of each work.
Coinciding with the need for scientific analyses, there is also a necessity for meaning which affirms a personalized acknowledgement and acclaim for the marvel and wonder of the natural systems and phenomena which sustain us. In this time of extreme weather events, our felt connection to, and the interconnectedness of all natural phenomena is ever more profound, conspicuous and present.
2024
