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The Dams Have Broken
in-progress acrylic paint and black rubber, 4 ft. by 3 ft |
When creating Spill, I first build thick black outlines with rubber paste on saran wrap. Then, I fill each outline with watery acrylic paint. Next, I break the outlines and let the liquid pour outwards. I then peel these objects up and repeat the steps with a variety of everyday items. I plan on continuing this project and making an installation of varying densities and clusters of spilling objects.
I was inspired while watching my niece use a coloring book. Her careful dedication to staying within the thick black lines stirred an emotional reaction within me. The black outlines suddenly became the bars of cages, inspiring feelings of isolation and confinement. I imagined breaking the boundaries and letting liquid pour from the ruptures.
In art, spills reveal the limits of containment and, instead, embrace all things messy, dirty, visceral, and sensual. In times of the reinstitution of systems of control and increasing anxiety around psychological, social, and bodily boundaries, spills reflect failures of control or our yearning for release. In this manner, the dissolution of borders can embody dread and catharsis, evoking emotional responses ranging from slapstick humor to traumatic loss. Are spills an apocalyptic collapse or glorious abandonment?
I was inspired while watching my niece use a coloring book. Her careful dedication to staying within the thick black lines stirred an emotional reaction within me. The black outlines suddenly became the bars of cages, inspiring feelings of isolation and confinement. I imagined breaking the boundaries and letting liquid pour from the ruptures.
In art, spills reveal the limits of containment and, instead, embrace all things messy, dirty, visceral, and sensual. In times of the reinstitution of systems of control and increasing anxiety around psychological, social, and bodily boundaries, spills reflect failures of control or our yearning for release. In this manner, the dissolution of borders can embody dread and catharsis, evoking emotional responses ranging from slapstick humor to traumatic loss. Are spills an apocalyptic collapse or glorious abandonment?