“Community Structure, Study #8” belongs to a series
of forms that look at possibilities within social or community structures.
Rigid wooden channels, the infrastructure of this community, hold
fiberglass lace in place, perpendicular to the wall. This perpendicular
architecture causes the overall form to be the most open when confronted
head on as columns of negative space, carved out by the fiberglass,
compress or completely disappear when the audience changes their
viewing perspective. This study looks at individuals within groups,
groups next to groups, communities, community structures, effects
of constructs on communities, and the shadows they cast.
The fiberglass language consists of 23 traditional crochet edging
patterns. A reserved, relatively even tempered community. In form
and color, the character of each member is “the same but different”
in varied small degrees. A member can be interpreted as one panel,
as a single wave on a given panel, or as individual, tiny, crocheted
knot. In form, all patterns relate. They are all some sort of wave
or scallop. In the group of 23, only 5 species of pattern exist
(traditional crochet patterns called Shoreline, New Dimension, Half
Token, Scissors, and Wide Variety), on the other hand, slight differences
in each of the same pattern are crocheted in. It is a monochromatic,
soft valued community. All color came from the same bottle. Only
blue and only one flavor of blue, added to each panel in varied
amounts thereby quietly asserting individuality.
Shadows and color projections cast on the wall by light passing
through the translucent fiberglass panels are as important as the
panels in articulating this community’s story. Multiple distances
of fiber from the wall create multiple values and focuses of shadow.
Is the drawing on the wall, the shadows, a new community or sub-culture
or is it simply residue of the rigid. Is fiberglass the reality?
Is its shadow the reality? Is shadow a less substantial copy of
a reality? A shadow is the result of an act. Is it an act? Is shadow
analogous to human behavior? If so, and identity is behavior, is
the shadow more real than the fiberglass? Tapping into the language
of popular culture, is it real or is it Memorex…which is real
and which is Memorex…the fiberglass, the projection caused
by light passing through the fiberglass, is it the shadow…and
what about the active space between them?
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