almost something insider forum

Working directly on one of Flux's gallery walls- already rich in history- I will build up new layers of surface, essentially creating a wall painting. Drawing on the integrity of labor of those workers who paint over graffiti and who clean up gallery walls, I will paint over my work with that ubiquitous five gallon drum of white latex paint. My first painting becomes the underpainting once it has been white washed. The painting will be almost entirely erased. Almost. Surface tensions will remain.

Next, consider the almost blank wall. Kerry Downey’s wall painting assumes a nearly devotional stance as well. The piece aims to pay homage to the act itself of erasing – to all whitewashed walls everywhere. How are surfaces built to begin with? How does the act of erasing relate to the act of hiding? How does hiding become evolving into something different altogether? The piece is emblematic of one of the questions hovering over the show …what is it I am (not) seeing? Can you make out the under-painting if you try? Can your eyes excavate any of what was painted before? What breaks the surface, what is being held back, what is being averted here? How much of painting is about being able to start over and to imagine again from the beginning?

Sometimes, erasing things is more interesting than adding stuff. Kerry and Cecile’s works are in the tradition of Ronald John Radi Os, which was created by erasing selected words from Milton’sParadise Lost in order to create a new and different poem. Interestingly, there’s another good poem in there, but you only notice it by removing things, taking things away, erasing.

not yet white-washed

not yet white-washed

The forum itself has become an almost something. Day in and day out I have things to say, mostly things as reactions, but I resist the click click click response of the forum because my head cannot fit in this space, the internet. My work for this show, and in general is about need for viscerality in a cyberworld of endless options, endless clickings. I want my options limited. With limitations I find freedom, not the other way around.

So with this space, which I nonetheless find useful and inspiring, I feel confused. I am speaking literally about the almost something forum space and website. Endless possibilities for connection, reaction. The endless vectors as arrows through my brain. Perhaps if we were push-pinning ideas, clippings, sketches to a concrete board, I would find the organization of it and navigation of it less harrowing. I have been thinking a lot lately about internet space, a world where people are meeting and exchanging vitual fluids and virtual art. My hands cannot grasp. There is a chasm. Some days I find this chasm inviting, seductive, worth trying to bridge. But lately, I am slipping through. Blogs by my best friends, websites labored over by my loved ones, internet havens where I can find rare people who share in my rare delights of polyeurathane, pink sweat suits, and ketchup flavored potato chips, and still I cannot take the time to click click click connect.

blank wall near pathmark

film still

USA – 2002 Matt McCormick

Kerry mentioned this film in her proposal.

"In this seemingly earnest sixteen-minute documentary, McCormick, via the voice of narrator (and fellow Portland artist) Miranda July, presents the notion that in covering up existing graffiti works, painters hired by the City of Portland are creating works of artistic genius themselves, without even realizing it."--notcoming.com

another image found by kerry

candidate for an image for the show

image from Matt McCormick’s film