EMMY CATEDRAL
I first wrote about Emmy Catedral's work in 2005 as a result of her participation in a group show, "Geography of Now," that featured her installation which addressed margins and marginality. You can see that article online at Our Own Voice, but I also replicated it in my book SUN STIGMATA (Sculpture Poems) because I so appreciated her work that I used one of its images as a cover image to one of my books:
Catedral would come to create a mini-installation through the use of a shadow box that she sent to me, along with a prototype for a note-pad crafted from margins. As I now write about my appreciation of these particular pieces, I consider my thoughts a continuation of what I expressed in the Our Own Voice article whose ending includes this excerpt:
Here are images of Catedral's shadow-box installation and note-pad prototype now residing at North Fork:
As you can see above, Catedral alchemized gold (art) from dross (the margins of the notepad). As I'd said in my Our Own Voice article,
Didactically (in a good way), Catedral made the excised margins useful by creating a notepad from them. Such *use* ascribes value on the result. The metaphor holds true about how the marginalized are not useless or worthy of value.
Catedral's concepts so resonated with me that I kept its packing material as I came to consider such part of the art work. Specifically, she had also used (presumably spare or extra) cuttings of lines from the notepad as packing material:
This *use* applied value to these thin strips of paper as minimal if not worthless.
But I gathered those thin paper strips to extend my engagement with Catedral's installation. Here they are as a clump on the floor. Are they litter ... or "art" as well by grabbing, focusing attention, and then engendering thoughts about marginality and the other related implications of Catedral's work?
Note that in tinkering with an installation-type response to Catedral's work, I placed the clump on paper strips in a bathroom, by a trash can so as to make the viewer wonder whether such "trash" had simply missed the waste receptacle. This actually is an homage to Catedral's installation during the "Geography of Now" show which had shown her placing part of her art in the bathroom, further extending the discourse on margins:
Indeed, in my own gallery, I deliberately installed Catedral's shadow box right by the entrance to a bathroom:
I'd also noted in the Our Own Voice article that Catedral was interested in others participating in her art installations. Thus, I add my own participation by focusing back on the lines Catedral excised from the notepads.
In another work, instead of leaving these thin paper strips to a status as waste or mere packing material, I elevated them to art. I framed them:
As you can see with my engagement with Catedral's installation, it is an enjoyable, fruitful process to engage her concepts. I am blessed to have her work in my home at North Fork.
Catedral would come to create a mini-installation through the use of a shadow box that she sent to me, along with a prototype for a note-pad crafted from margins. As I now write about my appreciation of these particular pieces, I consider my thoughts a continuation of what I expressed in the Our Own Voice article whose ending includes this excerpt:
... one of the most brilliant
works from Catedral’s series goes back to the roots of her exploration. That
is, after cutting out the margins and lines from legal pads, she glued the
paper pieces back together. But to do so means that, de facto, margins and
lines are created through the seams of the paper sheaves.
The result is different, of
course, from the predetermined margins and lines on the pages before Catedral
began manipulating the pages. This time, the new lines are a function of where
the spaces themselves end and overlap, rather than as vertical and marginal
lines imposed against the pages and which the users of legal pads are forced to
accept with no input as regards their placements.
Consequently, what Catedral
illustrates is the integrity of the objects (the page before a factory
arbitrarily lined it) so that Catedral shows how enhanced lucidity facilitates
how we may engage with the world more respectfully.
Here are images of Catedral's shadow-box installation and note-pad prototype now residing at North Fork:
As you can see above, Catedral alchemized gold (art) from dross (the margins of the notepad). As I'd said in my Our Own Voice article,
... the yellow
pad ... easily symbolize[s] whatever
elements a society or culture may least value: whether it’s the labor of
undocumented immigrants, the opinions of the disenfranchised, or the rights of
the impoverished. By drawing our attention to ... lowly objects, Catedral
ultimately suggests that we to pay attention, and be more caring, as regards
our environment.
Didactically (in a good way), Catedral made the excised margins useful by creating a notepad from them. Such *use* ascribes value on the result. The metaphor holds true about how the marginalized are not useless or worthy of value.
Catedral's concepts so resonated with me that I kept its packing material as I came to consider such part of the art work. Specifically, she had also used (presumably spare or extra) cuttings of lines from the notepad as packing material:
This *use* applied value to these thin strips of paper as minimal if not worthless.
But I gathered those thin paper strips to extend my engagement with Catedral's installation. Here they are as a clump on the floor. Are they litter ... or "art" as well by grabbing, focusing attention, and then engendering thoughts about marginality and the other related implications of Catedral's work?
Note that in tinkering with an installation-type response to Catedral's work, I placed the clump on paper strips in a bathroom, by a trash can so as to make the viewer wonder whether such "trash" had simply missed the waste receptacle. This actually is an homage to Catedral's installation during the "Geography of Now" show which had shown her placing part of her art in the bathroom, further extending the discourse on margins:
Indeed, in my own gallery, I deliberately installed Catedral's shadow box right by the entrance to a bathroom:
I'd also noted in the Our Own Voice article that Catedral was interested in others participating in her art installations. Thus, I add my own participation by focusing back on the lines Catedral excised from the notepads.
In another work, instead of leaving these thin paper strips to a status as waste or mere packing material, I elevated them to art. I framed them:
As you can see with my engagement with Catedral's installation, it is an enjoyable, fruitful process to engage her concepts. I am blessed to have her work in my home at North Fork.
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