a uniform hieroglyphic | 2020-2021
Chance offered a grey, slightly irregular, elongated felt rectangle with two small triangles extending from one side. I had an impulse to cut and stitch an orange letter 'c' within it. It required companions of different colors of felt. I began to think of them as pennants or banners. A silent celebration of the Guggenheim Fellowship I'd been awarded early in the pandemic— 'c' being the first letter of my first name. Though it occurred to me later that 'c' is also the first letter of covid, it is a note, a musical key, and sounds like sea and see and si and sí. The rectangles made visual sense in groupings of four. (Bars in a musical score.) Other shapes 'of my acquaintance' have entered and some are simply two colors of felt joined at a horizontal—or vertical seam. The groupings move both from right to left and left to right. Contradictions welcomed. Work proceeds slowly, requiring time to observe what has already been set in motion and how it suggests its own coming into being. Time too for the precise and deliberate cutting and stitching together of seams and inlaid shapes. I filled my studio walls, and then emptied them again so as to continue. I am looking for each banner to surprise me, as well as to hold its place in relationship to the array. There are subtle relief elements, some the chance results of felt's reaction to the tension of the stitching, and one (so far) a deliberate addition. I am considering now bringing freestanding pieces into the mix. The journey is ongoing.
Images of this work have been shown and discussed in Parts I and II of the online Cloud 9 Pavilion, curated by Anne Murray, Bangkok Biennial, 2020-2021. Murmurations, a solo exhibition with text, is included in Part II.