Perpendicular Dialogues (modified installation)
Trawick Prize Exhibition at the Creative Partners Gallery, Bethesda, MD
September 6 – October 2, 2005

This installation, an adaptation of my earlier Perpendicular Dialogues installation in the Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College 2001- 02 (individual series are still being expanded upon), is about collections, or about the idea of collecting.

What does it mean to collect – to collect things, to collect art?  How do we present our collections?  These ideas and questions came together during an intensive series of conversations and interactions over an 18-month period between myself and a number of other artists: dancers, musicians, a photographer and a media artist.  They were heavily influenced by my personal experiences during that time, and the result was more than 1,500 works of art using a wide variety of media: everything from Stickem Special (the glue used on sticky mouse traps) to finger condoms, glitter, pills and foam insulation.

At quick glance, the installation – a kind of cacophony of the imagination – looks as though it’s made by a large group of people instead of one person.

In a way, I’ve begun to collect myself – which, in addition to the practical aspect of accumulating objects of course has an emotional meaning, too (to bring your emotions together under one roof and under control).  So, I’ve begun to make both an emotional and physical record of a single life.

In the original Perpendicular Dialogues installation, the gallery walls, covered with work, appeared as flow charts towards an unknown destination.  These thoughts and groups of collections are still being expanded upon today.

The original installation was 113 feet in length, 10 feet in height and included numerous interactive floor elements.  For this Trawick Prize exhibition, I have selected a small cross-section of elements of the original installation.