Nitckpickers at Legion Arts | CSPS in Cedar Rapids.

In October 07 I was invited to participate on an International collaborative project and present at “Impact 5,” a biennial print conference held in a different country each year. I spent 8 days in Tallinn, Estonia and worked on a collaboration that was then presented to the public as an installation.

Monotrace on a sheet of clear plastic. A knitting mistakes included to create a stretched, torn, and worn fiber mesh feel. Drawing a line is simply the documentation of a performance. The knitted structure is two feet wide and approximately five feet tall. Here, the prints or virtual fiber mesh growths organically as sections are added through time.

Installation focusing on the relationships created by smell, food, fungus, and scale. The baked objects, containing flour / detergent / yeast / soap / ramen noodles, are hybrid experiments referencing mad science. They are treated as specimen, dissected, documented, and meticulously labeled to become abject microcosmic dissections. Much like a visual haiku, half a loaf of bread is positioned next to a gigantic fungus.

Re-assembled from the architectonic designs of milk cartons after they were printed on different surfaces, such as knitted wool or shop rags. With minimalist fascination, by the angles and planes of intersection, the cartons are translated into two-dimensional prints and sculpted objects. The removal from the carton’s function for consumption, its transference onto cloth and its three- dimensional reconfiguration out of other material, refers to some sort of intimacy, mythology, and Joseph Beuys-like aesthetic.

Alongside the installation, that used dried pancakes to mimic tree fungus, I also drew the yellow, flat, disks. I documented the various stages of the pancakes via detailed sketches leading me to further investigations on food; drawing parallels to scientific research and centrifugal forces. In the United States pancakes are known to be thick, round, and dry. In England they are thin, slightly oiled and taste best rolled up with sugar in the middle. In Egypt they are eaten as a snack, folded in half, deep-fried and soaked in sugar. The creation of a pancake has fascinated me since childhood as I watched my mother make Pfannkuchen.

Whenever used, the sticky roll traces its environment and creates an index. It accumulates what washing machines or vacuums have neglected and partakes in the cycle of personal cleanliness. The lint roller’s function, to collect and transfer detritus, is what interest me in them. Perhaps this series is ultimately overshadowed by my other work but ranks amongst my favorite projects conceptually.