Fractured Cosmos

2017 - 2018

Digital printing on silk

At first glance, my Fractures Cosmos series of digitally-printed silk scarves appears to replicate the drawings that inspired them. However the scarves – like their cognate wooden pendants – do not precisely duplicate the graphic forms that inspired them, but rather allow shared themes to dictate common design principles across media. Linear forms that appear in the original drawings have been deliberately altered in size or shape to re-converge on a surface that will itself be continually in motion.

The monochrome black-and-white of ink on paper has also been subtly metamorphosed: black biomorphic forms tangle with loosely geometric patter atop a network of white botanical offshoots on a golden ground. The black lines thus appear to hover over white cast-shadows; the unexpected reversal of dark and light is compounded by the fact that the white silhouettes do not correspond with the forms they might shadow. This reversal of dark and lights calls into question traditional understandings of figure and shadow, or more broadly: which is the original and which the copy. This confusion of clear category within the pattern speaks to the scarves’ own position as work that collapses or defies traditional artistic classification: original, copy, derivation, hand-made, computer-generated, graphic art or fashion.