Stardust Staredust Stirdust
Transforming the space with a recycled paper installation, this exhibition will playfully consider the themes of drawing, the act of prayer as a creative endeavor, along with an ordered description of the universe. Featuring images of stars and building materials, Stardust Staredust Stirdust presents a view of the cosmos as malleable. This view encourages participation and gallery attendees will be invited to contribute drawings and receive prayer during the event.
Composed of black circles and strips of paper, Stardust Staredust Stirdust offers a broad interpretation of the process of drawing. Not solely defined by material like paper and pencil, drawing can be described as a line in space, or an aggregation of marks on a surface. For example, each strip of paper suspended from the ceiling playfully becomes a three-dimensional drawn line complete with connecting circles. Delicately pinned to the main wall, the ‘drawing’ with cut paper forms a cloudlike mass. Images of wood weave between black circles or stars to assist with the construction of a cosmos, sensitively connecting constellation groupings.
I consider the practice of drawing, whether in this context or more a more traditional framework a contemplative activity. Recorded in conversation from the magazine Art on Paper, Yves Berger aptly portrays this quality about drawing. “I feel the process of drawing as something like an electric circuit: something passes from what I look at to me and from me to it. And, hopefully, when conditions are right, when everything is plugged in, I’m carried away by this flux” (Yves Berger 66). Berger’s description of the development of a piece of artwork, especially a straightforward drawing, relays the dynamic relationship between initiation and response within the role of creation. Additionally, embedded within the engagement is the role of experimentation. The artwork itself evidences this type of concentration and its process of making.
By inviting participants to contribute drawings and prayers, Stardust Staredust Stirdust suggests a parallel connection between the two activities. The dynamic relationship or flux that Berger describes is comparable to my personal experience with prayer, as much as it is with drawing. While prayer has many forms, within this exhibition I am most interested in its description as a creative endeavor. As a productive or imaginative venture, the efficacy of prayer to exact change or cause transformation is implied. I consider the definition of the pursuit as simply a dialogue between the God who created the universe and an individual or a group of people. Conversation and candid exchange is at the core of this activity. Indeed, the explanation of “something passes from what I look at to me and from me to it” is a relevant description for the mysterious nature of being in organic dialogue with an infinitely inventive God.
The star imagery throughout Stardust Staredust Stirdust further encourages the correlation between both drawing and prayer while amplifying the scale of the exchange. As with many creative pursuits the formal goal for the exhibition is harmony. Harmony, or the pleasing agreement between smaller parts to whole broadly relates to a more ordered view of the universe, more specifically the definition of the cosmos.
Additionally, fragile pieces of paper lumber weave between the celestial bodies to create loose gatherings of stars. The building material tenuously links the collection and dissipation of black circles to playfully suggest that the cosmos is currently in the midst of construction. Carefully dissected from a book titled The Fundamentals of Carpentry, I specifically borrowed images of wood to poetically involve a personal view regarding the threads of connection between drawing, prayer, and the cosmos. I incorporated a reference to carpentry to subtly suggest the person of Jesus at work amongst this conversation.
Although this framework is specific and themes of the exhibition are quite broad, the overall posture of Stardust Staredust Stirdust is one of an experimental invitation to engage with the process. While considering the mysterious and expansive nature of exchange between drawing, prayer, and the cosmos, perhaps conditions will be right to become “carried away by this flux.”
John and Yves Berger. “Lobster and Three Fishes”. Art on Paper. New York, New York: Darte Publishing LLC, Vol. 10, No. 5. May/June 2006. 66.
Composed of black circles and strips of paper, Stardust Staredust Stirdust offers a broad interpretation of the process of drawing. Not solely defined by material like paper and pencil, drawing can be described as a line in space, or an aggregation of marks on a surface. For example, each strip of paper suspended from the ceiling playfully becomes a three-dimensional drawn line complete with connecting circles. Delicately pinned to the main wall, the ‘drawing’ with cut paper forms a cloudlike mass. Images of wood weave between black circles or stars to assist with the construction of a cosmos, sensitively connecting constellation groupings.
I consider the practice of drawing, whether in this context or more a more traditional framework a contemplative activity. Recorded in conversation from the magazine Art on Paper, Yves Berger aptly portrays this quality about drawing. “I feel the process of drawing as something like an electric circuit: something passes from what I look at to me and from me to it. And, hopefully, when conditions are right, when everything is plugged in, I’m carried away by this flux” (Yves Berger 66). Berger’s description of the development of a piece of artwork, especially a straightforward drawing, relays the dynamic relationship between initiation and response within the role of creation. Additionally, embedded within the engagement is the role of experimentation. The artwork itself evidences this type of concentration and its process of making.
By inviting participants to contribute drawings and prayers, Stardust Staredust Stirdust suggests a parallel connection between the two activities. The dynamic relationship or flux that Berger describes is comparable to my personal experience with prayer, as much as it is with drawing. While prayer has many forms, within this exhibition I am most interested in its description as a creative endeavor. As a productive or imaginative venture, the efficacy of prayer to exact change or cause transformation is implied. I consider the definition of the pursuit as simply a dialogue between the God who created the universe and an individual or a group of people. Conversation and candid exchange is at the core of this activity. Indeed, the explanation of “something passes from what I look at to me and from me to it” is a relevant description for the mysterious nature of being in organic dialogue with an infinitely inventive God.
The star imagery throughout Stardust Staredust Stirdust further encourages the correlation between both drawing and prayer while amplifying the scale of the exchange. As with many creative pursuits the formal goal for the exhibition is harmony. Harmony, or the pleasing agreement between smaller parts to whole broadly relates to a more ordered view of the universe, more specifically the definition of the cosmos.
Additionally, fragile pieces of paper lumber weave between the celestial bodies to create loose gatherings of stars. The building material tenuously links the collection and dissipation of black circles to playfully suggest that the cosmos is currently in the midst of construction. Carefully dissected from a book titled The Fundamentals of Carpentry, I specifically borrowed images of wood to poetically involve a personal view regarding the threads of connection between drawing, prayer, and the cosmos. I incorporated a reference to carpentry to subtly suggest the person of Jesus at work amongst this conversation.
Although this framework is specific and themes of the exhibition are quite broad, the overall posture of Stardust Staredust Stirdust is one of an experimental invitation to engage with the process. While considering the mysterious and expansive nature of exchange between drawing, prayer, and the cosmos, perhaps conditions will be right to become “carried away by this flux.”
John and Yves Berger. “Lobster and Three Fishes”. Art on Paper. New York, New York: Darte Publishing LLC, Vol. 10, No. 5. May/June 2006. 66.
