The Matrix

The most important thing (for me) when coming up with a show, is the intellectual-imaginative and/or design framework which will hold it together and make it truly function as a BODY of work. A show without such a thing (like my portion of last summer's Inside/Outside, may (or may not) satisfy the viewer, but for me will never be as fulfilling as something with the flavor of gesamtkunstwerk.

If a show is small, like ShowOff in summer 05, such a framework is relatively easy to come up with (although will probably be lacking in grand schemes). ShowOff consisted exclusively of my first Ex Nihilo series of ink drawings, so it was cohesive, but that was kind of it.

My senior thesis From The New World was the first time I put together something which really captivated me, creatively, imaginitively and intellectually, not just in the creation of the individual pieces but in coming up with thought processes and a narrative/symbolic structure which would inform which pieces (out of the many I sketched and planned for) would be executed and included in the final show, what order I would make them in, what materials (gold or silver) they would be embellished with, what their focal points would be (birds, rabbits, humans), and also suggest what motifs and symbols would be included in the marginalia (The New World had a very illuminated manuscript feel and upon completing the general layout/design of each piece, I would be confronted with areas that needed to be filled in or embellished but were theretofore unused space, physically and symbolically. The theme and its associated symbol systems then supplied me with appropriate material for marginalia that would support, enhance and commentate on the main elements of the piece (for instance, here and here) - it creates a very real, though submerged, framework that the viewer recognizes on some level, enough to follow its scaffolding across and between the pieces, but cannot completely enter into - akin to C.S. Lewis' kappa element in fiction).

The projected exhibition is in even greater need of such an organizing factor, having so many separate series. I am happy to say that I have found that rubric and will be applying it.