For this project, entitled Night, ordinary brown paper grocery bags were transformed into a room-sized installation depicting the evening sky. Woven into a backlight canvas, the piece was created from the unassuming gleanings of people engaged in routine activity. Becoming a dark canopy, the sacks betray their primary function as containers of basic needs. Throughout the installation, celestial bodies are loosely abstracted. Composed of bright fragments of light and color, stars also playfully stand in for individuals. Both materials and imagery underscore shared experience.

Like the nature of the bags themselves, Night responds to both the shared economic situation and a more personal struggle exemplified by my process of accumulation of the bags as well as the action of painting and stitching such a basic material together. Over time, the project became a documentation of my working hours, reflecting a shift towards late-night studio time.

Dusk, a familiar event, represents a conclusion and the last gasp of vigor towards confronting the obligations of the day. The phenomenon also serves as a reminder of cyclical occurrence. While the temporary dim of twilight can be timed and quantified, the metaphor of the image evades that type of precision. In this work, made tangible as a curtain, the nightscape becomes suspended rather than represented as a succession of events, an impenetrable blanket that precludes far-reaching vision.

Though created within a large installation space with vaulted 20ft ceilings, the work refuses the majesty of the nightscape and speaks to the repeated questioning of the validity of the cycle. Just as night often leads to stasis rather then anticipation, the curtain calls the empty space behind into question. A viewer familiar with the space understands that much is unseen, but cannot be sure what is behind, whether we look with hope or uncertainty.