Present Participle | 2019-2020
Present Participle continues from previous bodies of work with gouache-painted, pencil-drawn (and written) works on paper and hand stitched industrial wool felt freestanding and wall pieces in established processes that include the transplantation of cutout letters, letter-derived and pictogram-like shapes. These works hover in the space between two and three dimensions. Many of the titles and words that appear in the work come from Gertrude Stein's writing. They are playful and absurd, defying singular interpretations.
In the felt wall pieces, shapes are cut out and then inlaid (and stitched) into position not unlike marquetry, requiring exactness. The tension of the stitches causes subtle dimensional flare-ups that further animate the work. The simple box-like forms of the felt freestanding pieces belie the complexity of their making. Felt's unpredictable reactions to the spiraling stitches of the supporting seams necessitate in-process, improvisational engineering and a devotional stitch-by-stitch attentiveness so as to enable the work to both sit flat on a horizontal surface and stand up. This doomed attempt at regularity is in opposition to the compressed chaos that is felt. Like the earlier work, the freestanding pieces are self-supporting; there are no armatures or additional supporting materials. The seams function as an exoskeleton, enabling open interior spaces, while simultaneously provoking and resisting felt's natural inclination to buckle, stretch, droop, and torque. I think of the stitching as drawing with a concrete line and consider cutting as a form of physical drawing. Most of the work begins with cast-offs or remains of earlier pieces: cutout shapes and the grounds from which they have been cut with untidy edges 'as is,' suggesting history and the desire for repair and renewal.
Selections from this body of work comprise Present Participle, my 2021 solo exhibition concurrent with Leslie Roberts' solo What Now? at 57W57 Arts. Our conversation, "Cyrilla Mozenter and Leslie Roberts: Where did we leave off?” was published online in Two Coats of Paint, October 27, 2021.
A selection of works was shown in the four-person exhibition, The World Develops Blank Spots, at Margaret Thatcher Projects in 2022.