Mutations, slips of speech, genetics and language intermix and fuel my questions about identity, communication, sameness and difference. The many human traits we hold in common, expressed succinctly in the paired down make-up of our DNA, produce mesmerizing variation and difference. Mistakes and blips multiply within our systems and perpetuate intensities, blurs and unexpected masses of consequence. Through this we know ourselves.
My installations, objects, drawings and paintings abstractly refer to specific places or clusters of people--designated gene pools momentarily united or dispersed. To map these connections, I activate materials such as the translucent skin-like surface of paper, the subtle raised patterns of silk brocade or the direct impressions of my fingerprints or thread in paint. Dots and nodes of action and passivity form fields and systems of circuitry. Branching lines fill and traverse space suggesting floor plans, maps, genetic diagrams, pathways or tangled conversations forming a labyrinth both private and contemplative. As my works grow from small parts into clusters, sequenced groupings, folded maps or architectural insertions, intimate qualities are expanded into a space of walking, observing and tactile experience. Fleeting connections known and obsessed within our bodies, fragments of language and synaptic impulses of memory mingle as still surface erupts. Accumulated drops and coats of paint mass, layer and hide something vulnerable and private under the camouflage of surface. A skin is formed. Materials fold—layer---bend until surface is history.
Jane Lackey/2008
My installations, objects, drawings and paintings abstractly refer to specific places or clusters of people--designated gene pools momentarily united or dispersed. To map these connections, I activate materials such as the translucent skin-like surface of paper, the subtle raised patterns of silk brocade or the direct impressions of my fingerprints or thread in paint. Dots and nodes of action and passivity form fields and systems of circuitry. Branching lines fill and traverse space suggesting floor plans, maps, genetic diagrams, pathways or tangled conversations forming a labyrinth both private and contemplative. As my works grow from small parts into clusters, sequenced groupings, folded maps or architectural insertions, intimate qualities are expanded into a space of walking, observing and tactile experience. Fleeting connections known and obsessed within our bodies, fragments of language and synaptic impulses of memory mingle as still surface erupts. Accumulated drops and coats of paint mass, layer and hide something vulnerable and private under the camouflage of surface. A skin is formed. Materials fold—layer---bend until surface is history.
Jane Lackey/2008