Artist Statement-Fall09-1

Spoken and written conversations have the unique ability that allows for miscommunication. Spelling, pronunciation, and context are some elements that can twist, knot, or confuse intention.

In my current work I am intentionally creating a miscommunication by physically altering my sources. Similar to Mira Schendel’s Droguninhas (Little nothings) series, I twist, knot, chain, and weave paper to create objects that reveals and conceals upon itself. Trusting the materials to hold its integrity, while I forcefully alter its form, resembles the trust a writer would have for their written words to relay their message with the correct intent.

In the piece called Notebook 1, I am using the pages of a notebook that was a grade-school correspondence with a good friend. When I first read through this book, I became interested in how sarcasm, jokes, and hurtful words never seemed to carry the impact on paper as it would if spoken. Often the words are diluted by grammatical errors or because of my distance to the context. By manipulating the pages into a chain the words are disconnected from their context even more. Hurtful words from one sentence are now positioned in close proximity to jokes from a different sentence. Parts of the narrative are completely forgotten, but in this new configuration all the words carry equal importance.