Paired with photographer Lindsey Beal’s abstract cyanotype works, this show was a further exploration of imagery developed through my Interlaced project.
Curator’s Statement
The word technology comes from the greek technologia, or the “systematic treatment of an art, from technē art, skill ... -logia -logy”. Early computers used punch cards and were modeled after the Jacquard loom. The digital and virtual media that current culture is so immersed in has grown out of a long history of handmade traditions and technologies. The work of Lindsey Beal and Sarah Trahan embraces this rich history within the contemporary framework of digital media.
For her series Interlaced Trahan scans scraps of fabric, yarn, thread, etc. to create a rich palette of texture and color for her digital weavings. These fragments of tactile materials are absorbed into the rhythmic structure of the woven image. Upon close inspection the viewer may catch a glimpse of a torn edge of fabric or a finger on the scanner bed in the midst of pattern and movement. By embracing the intimacy of these tactile materials Trahan is able to connect the present and past technologies for a moment that warrants reflection.
Lindsey Beal wants the photographs in her series Commonplace to feel like objects. The images in these hand printed cyanotypes are culled from instagram photos Beal takes with her phone. Yet, unlike much of our social media landscape, Beal’s images are more abstract with a focus on line, shape, and texture. The small scale draws the viewer in so that the image is as close to them as the images one looks at on their phone. And yet there is an intimacy in knowing that you are the sole viewer at that moment. The word commonplace is a reference to 20th century books used to document daily occurrences: this is a practice that is oddly resonant with certain social media habits today. Both Beal and Trahan create intimate works that connect the past and present while moving fluidly between handmade/tactile technologies and digital culture. -Caitlin Foley
Curator’s Statement
The word technology comes from the greek technologia, or the “systematic treatment of an art, from technē art, skill ... -logia -logy”. Early computers used punch cards and were modeled after the Jacquard loom. The digital and virtual media that current culture is so immersed in has grown out of a long history of handmade traditions and technologies. The work of Lindsey Beal and Sarah Trahan embraces this rich history within the contemporary framework of digital media.
For her series Interlaced Trahan scans scraps of fabric, yarn, thread, etc. to create a rich palette of texture and color for her digital weavings. These fragments of tactile materials are absorbed into the rhythmic structure of the woven image. Upon close inspection the viewer may catch a glimpse of a torn edge of fabric or a finger on the scanner bed in the midst of pattern and movement. By embracing the intimacy of these tactile materials Trahan is able to connect the present and past technologies for a moment that warrants reflection.
Lindsey Beal wants the photographs in her series Commonplace to feel like objects. The images in these hand printed cyanotypes are culled from instagram photos Beal takes with her phone. Yet, unlike much of our social media landscape, Beal’s images are more abstract with a focus on line, shape, and texture. The small scale draws the viewer in so that the image is as close to them as the images one looks at on their phone. And yet there is an intimacy in knowing that you are the sole viewer at that moment. The word commonplace is a reference to 20th century books used to document daily occurrences: this is a practice that is oddly resonant with certain social media habits today. Both Beal and Trahan create intimate works that connect the past and present while moving fluidly between handmade/tactile technologies and digital culture. -Caitlin Foley
Left: Digital Weaving, Inkjet Print, Sarah Trahan. Right: Abstraction #12, Cyanotype, Lindsey Beal.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36 in.
Portrait, hand-sewn fabric over wood frame, 18 x 24 in.
Woven Object, hand-sewn fabric over wood frame, 18 x 24 in.
Torso Study, hand-sewn fabric, over wooden frame, 18 x 24 in.
Weaving Process 01, hand-collaged xerox prints on cotton paper. 24 x 36 in. framed.
Weaving Process 02, hand-collaged xerox prints on cotton paper. 24 x 36 in. framed.
Weaving Process 03, hand-collaged xerox prints on cotton paper. 24 x 36 in. framed.