Needles and Pins
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California; curated by Arnold Kemp
March 14 - May 31, 1998
I began working with pins on styrofoam about five years ago for a number
of reasons. I trained as a painter but was experimenting with other materials
when I stumbled upon some industrial styrofoam. At first I used it as
a canvas, attaching fabrics to it and the best way to adhere the fabrics
to the material was by using pins. It didn't take long for me to unmask
the styrofoam and start using the exposed material by itself. This material
addresses many of the ideas I am interested in and does it in very subtle
yet powerful ways. Styrofoam is commonly used as housing insulation to
protect ourselves from the elements. I am interested in playing with notions
of safety by sticking pins into it and putting what is usually inside
of the wall, outside.
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The materials themselves attracted me formally
- the insulation for its texture and its color, blue and pink - its gender
associations, and for the industrial text that is marked on it. The pins
I like to use for their shiny, glittery glistening qualities, for their
ties to women's work and for their abilities to prick or pin down cetain
words, phrases, ideas. I enjoy breaking things down into their inherent
qualities in order to build something new out of them, to see common materials
in different ways, loading the lightweight with meaning. pinned - In my
most recent work, I have moved from blue styrofoam to pink and moved from
the wall into three dimensions. Pinned is an installation of foam insulation
objects resembling animals, rocks, and shapes which are meticulously punctured
by silver sewing pins. These pink, nonfurry totems engage in a visual language
which is armored but not dangerous, beautifully absurd. The various groupings
of pink foam shapes converge to form patterns and designs which are poignant,
funny, and frightfully serious. pinstractions |
