Abstracting the Paradox.
In my new Paper Construction series, “Abstracting the Paradox”, I was compelled, as an artist, to explore the contradictions inherently present in our post Truth reality. I needed a workable narrative that could address the seamless loss of historic memory, morality, and values that threatens to twist the thorny web of lies into enough rope to hang ourselves.
I decided to focus on the idea of the Sacred and the Profane as a creative construct, which also worked as a conundrum at the core of the paradox. “The old world is like the new one, only in decay. What was once sacrosanct is now the bloody cow. Love is torture and Greed is Good”. How then is it possible to make these abstractions into a coherent visual expression? For me, subtly and stealth. After all, less is more!
The use of the Triptych format helped to carve out just enough visual information for meaning and coherence. I employed many symbols to illustrate certain aspects of the narrative in both Temples. Clothes pins became the primary structure by which fragile things are held together. They also represented the skeletal frame of each Stele, overpopulated with deformed figures implying a calligraphic dance to non-stop music. The 5-foot steles stand as sentinels to the centerpiece of the Temples. I deliberately aged the paper and sought to weave the ancient world with the dying aspect of the new one.
Paper: that malleable pulp of yumminess became the perfect foil. Constructing, scaffolding and molding concepts from handmade and finely crafted rice paper, the process of fashioning the Temples with the Queen representing the Sacred and the Greed, the Profane, l found painstakingly slow. The triptychs were enhanced by using Assemblage techniques that were embellished with a variety of wooden dowels, unusual metallic objects and homemade “artifacts”, creating a textural elegance to the visual surface of the finished work.

Tablets of the Honeycomb: (Temple of the Queen)
This six-sided art book is shaped like a honeycomb in the Sacred Hive of the Queen Bee. This installation has an interior space that viewers can peer into and see the ancient world greeting its current inhabitants. The outer honeycomb portends to a future world beyond this one.
For the inner chamber of the cell, I chose to use familiarity of everyday items and words against an ancient series of images and mythology. My aim here is to allow the viewer to experience the clash of concepts within the honeycomb. The yellow Queen Bee in the center lays under a lantern of light, reflecting back that which we have created as a powerful Human element on Earth.
The outer realm of the honeycomb is anchored by the past that ushers in a Void like womb of expectant spaces. Here, the possibilities are endless, and the birthing of a new dynamic awaits. There are small wooden forms that can be picked up and read. It’s my way of including the viewer in the creation of another dimension to our Humanity.

The Big Book of Secrets, Lies and Other Absurdities. (Temple of the Greed)
Clearly, this fragile big book, held together by tiny clothes pins is part of the Temple of Greed. It is an interactive collection of collages that illustrate the range of instances, attitudes and statements that are often used to agitate people into an emotional response. Feel free to look.
This treatise is meant to mirror some of the sacred texts in our society and yet the reality is almost diametrically opposite to those teachings. I wanted to flood the pages with the hypocrisy found in the substance of an entire society professing to live by a higher power and yet, with so little regard for the dignity of mankind. 
The fragility of the book is by design. We populate every aspect of our existence as throw away and non-essential, when in truth, the opposite is true. Everything today has a limited shelf life; one that maintains its value through greed, lust and power. The dam is going to break, and l hope we know by then how to rebuild a compassionate system for Human governance.
Lastly, the entire body of work in this exhibition is a passion plea for that which inspires us can be brought into spaces where callousness and greed are no longer revered.