Concept
With "Three lines" I set out to explore the potentiality of place and space.
The work creates a series of constantly shifting and unexpected visual experiences through the use of a limited module: an sequence of simple lines that interweave themselves with the structure of the space. Limiting the range of elements that go to make up the drawing allows for a kind of structured improvisation, something like a visual jazz that, within the logic implied by its self-imposed rules, frees the lines to dance sensuously through the atrium space. I consider this work a form of imaginative dialogue with the space defined by the atrium, rather than an intervention of that space.
Project
This project is a permanent wall drawing made with strips of colored rice paper. It is the outcome of an exploration of masking tape as a drawing technique. In effect, this project will be drawn with paper, rather than on paper.
A series of colored lines will weave themselves throughout the atrium, including the walls, the edge of the landings and the underside of the stairs. Though this will not be immediately apparent from any one vantage point, the work consists of just three lines or, if you will, a single line that branches off in a Y at one point.
These three lines are, in turn, composed of just three types of line segments, brought together following a particular logic. The three segments include one long one (60 cm or 96 cm), one short one (24 cm), and a free segment of varying length. The long and short segments always come together at a right angle, while the free segment flies off at variable angles from them. In total, the drawing consists of 86 of these triads, 258 line-segments in total.
Materials and techniques
To accomplish this project, I've re-imagined and re-invented Masking Tape to render it into a permanent material: strips of rice paper are first colored with pigments and then affixed to the wall using an acrylic gel medium. Using this technique, the intricate fiber patterns of the underlying rice paper strips remains fully visible, adding a warm and sensual texture to an otherwise austere geometric drawing.
The acrylic gel medium will virtually fuse the paper strips to the walls. The drawing surface will then be covered, first, with an isolation coat (a permanent, non-removable coating) that will serve to physically separate the paint surface from the removable varnish and, finally, with a finishing varnish that will offers a hard, protective coating over the rice paper drawing.
This process allows a permanent work that will stand the test of time and, should the need for it arise, can be cleaned simply with water and a sponge, or with a specialized stain remover, as well.