When I signed on to have a show in Gallery 1, my intention was to exhibit an entirely different slice of work than what is here now. Sometime in late January it dawned on me that this show coincided with the April 7th solar eclipse. I shifted efforts. Suspending my woven disk — a moon made of found denim — became the priority as I scrapped my original plan. 

What you see here are the some of the ways that my work talks of calculations and grids and my respect for and study of the physical sciences. In some ways, this gallery contains observations and remembrances of other eclipses; the people I was with as I watched the moon move in front of the sun or the shadow of the earth hide the moon; the sidewalks, parking lots, and schoolyards where we gathered; and, the spark of excitement that comes with observing phenomena greater than ourselves.

The materials of these works are as, or more, important than any coat of paint or dye that I could have added. They are humble and include things like found denim, found painted wood, and discarded rubber inner tubes. Faux gold makes an appearance in two of the woven polyester works – Dimeh al-Siba and Fayoum. I use it for its luminosity but also because the process of gilding the polyester bias tapes suggests the slathering of ointments and balms and nights spent in the Western Desert.

The suspended moon-disk, the bowl-like sculpture and the bias tape pieces in the room are heavily influenced by the eight years I lived in Egypt. I hope that in my work the viewer can find connections to the elaborate patterning of linen strips that wrap the Fayoum mummies, the astrophysical alignment of the Great Sphinx in Giza, and the geometries of the Avenue of the Kings Festivities and the Temple of Karnak in Luxor.

I also hope that the viewer can further see that the work, although its whispers to ancient Egypt, is still of the American South, of Texas, and of the sky over this enormous swath of land near the Gulf of Mexico. The denim, the handiwork, the kite strings and the sewn papers are familiar, everyday materiality. Even the gold in this gallery is fake, and the fibers, synthetic.  

 04/02/2024