ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The installation “Lightly
Here” continues my evolving exploration of the relationship between the
earthly reality of the body and the lightly tethered spirit. The work
uses the imagery and materials from the art of clothing construction in
combination with the drawn line to create figures that suggest an
entwined sense of gravity and buoyancy.
The title – “Lightly Here” is
from the song lyrics to “Boogie Street” written by Leonard Cohen.
“So come, my friends, be not
afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.”
2008 – more general
statement about my work:
I’m interested in the
remainders of human activity and the traces of environmental events.
They are telling of the pressures one experiences in everyday life –
these traces and remainders help expose physical layers of the past in
the present. I work to combine these layers – this detritus of human
life – with my present movements in the studio. My studio work is an
attempt at catching and combining the past and present in transparent
layers of collage.
The material artifacts that I
work with provide records of the very human compulsion to mediate the
effect of nature. The attempts at reconciling nature and society are
shaped by endless combinations composed of familial, cultural and
biological patterns that form the environment in which we live and
create. I wish to make a visual record of the actions that arise out of
my personal dance with time, place, choice, and chance – and the limits
of my understanding.
Technical Details:
How the piece was made.
Grinnell creates the many
layers of her artwork in a production line, first making large-scale
line drawings of sewn sections of clothing, like the ruffle of a
neckline, a dress zipper, or the pleats of an inverted skirt.
In another sweep, the
studio will be awash with the inner workings of the human body, the
coils of the intestines entwined with bones, tendons and blood vessels.
Like a seamstress,
Grinnell layers the transparent drawings, made from black or white ink
on spun polyester and silk fabrics, with constructive interfacing to
stiffen them up.
She adds translucent
layers of vintage clothing patterns she inherited from her late mother,
hanging the sheer, clear-acrylic-coated skins to dry on clotheslines in
her studio between stages of development. She later cuts out the shapes
like pattern pieces to fit into her free-flowing contours.
From the review: “Body of
Work” for the clothes minded by Jennifer Zurlini
The Spokesman Review
Spokesman.com | On the Wall Jennifer Zurlini | May 14, 2009
