Volitia Turns Around

Shen Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2018

“The Shen Gallery resides in a building that functions as a container of ideas, a building which provides a structure for a thriving network of epiphanies, memories, expectations, mistakes, daydreams and connections––a coordinated system of individual movements and collaborations, cycles of concentration and dispersal.

When I looked at the empty gallery space with my own work in mind, I was struck by the four panels that are used to cover the windows. The panels provide a pace and rhythm to an unfolding narrative, giving form to the concept of momentum, conjuring associations to the daily comic strip and single gag panel, the freeze-frame and stop-motion animation, as well as a diverse legacy of serial exploration in art - including Hokusai’s Views of Mt. Fuji, Monet’s Haystacks, Matisse’s Backs, Lichtenstein’s Girls, Bourgeois' Cells, LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, Hesse’s Ropes and Gourevitch’s Clouds.

In a circular, changeable, abstract story, what happens to familiar notions of beginning, middle and end? Presentation becomes performance as the responsive wall-drawing adjusts to its context. In a room with two entrances and two exits, by the time you recognize your own arrival you have already passed the beginning. Is it possible to turn a viewer around? If so, what would you like her to see?”