SUSPENDED ANIMATION #9 – BENDING THE ARC
2018
photographic print, acrylic, collage, ink, resin, wire – 7" x 7" x 3.5"
About SUSPENDED ANIMATION #9 – BENDING THE ARC:
Bend the Arc highlights the surreal, hypnotic impact of a single barbed wire spiral outside an abandoned church in downtown Atlanta. A sense of movement punctuates the image, as the wire’s graceful curve captures the viewer’s eye, a flash of silver rising from monochromatic, dusty surroundings. I chose to create an installment for the Suspended Animation series based on this photograph’s subtle suggestions of time and change, of hope and the possibility of transcendence—the wire’s gleaming, defiant path to the sky called to mind Martin Luther King’s famous words about the “arc of the moral universe,” a reminder to take a long view in the face of insurmountable obstacles. The earthen tones of nearby concrete and dark maroon bricks on nearby buildings act as a veil; only by pausing to absorb the environment in full do punctuations of color catch the eye. Inviting the viewer to pause and take in the moment, this series calls attention to gleaming, metallic spirals of wire hiding behind the drab refuse of an urban cityscape—illuminating transforming, in the most subtle ways, even the starkest conditions in which we find ourselves.
About the series:
Our ability to assess distance or proximity relies on depth perception, the capacity to view objects in three dimensions. In everyday, our very lives depend on this overlooked element of human vision; failure to assess and absorb different perspectives renders even the most mundane activities, like a highway commute to work, dangerously lethal. Each iteration of Suspended Animation focuses on an encounter in everyday life, capturing in freeze-frame otherwise seemingly insignificant moments in time to enable an appreciation for the small details, the little things, the beauty of overlooked miracles that too often blend into our surroundings.
Some pieces in Suspended Animation feature a singular photograph as the work’s central element, using transparent media like glass, acrylic, or resin to magnify and illuminate the moment in question—giving viewers the chance to look again, this time, from new perspectives. Others use the momentary act of viewing as a meditative experiment. Here, I retain the series’ approach to transparency and media forms and extend the experience by supplementing collage techniques to enable sustained consideration of everyday life’s unrealized possibilities—a dazzling kaleidoscope of infinite variations. Time constitutes the central conceptual element behind the series Suspended Animation, inviting the viewer to a shared moment of experiential pleasure and contemplation, and reminds us to stop and see differently. This work is difficult to classify, constituting both sculpture and mixed media, while simultaneously resisting any attempt at easy categorization.
Some pieces in Suspended Animation feature a singular photograph as the work’s central element, using transparent media like glass, acrylic, or resin to magnify and illuminate the moment in question—giving viewers the chance to look again, this time, from new perspectives. Others use the momentary act of viewing as a meditative experiment. Here, I retain the series’ approach to transparency and media forms and extend the experience by supplementing collage techniques to enable sustained consideration of everyday life’s unrealized possibilities—a dazzling kaleidoscope of infinite variations. Time constitutes the central conceptual element behind the series Suspended Animation, inviting the viewer to a shared moment of experiential pleasure and contemplation, and reminds us to stop and see differently. This work is difficult to classify, constituting both sculpture and mixed media, while simultaneously resisting any attempt at easy categorization.