Transition Points: Lisa Walcott, Linda Lopez, Terrence Campagna, Mathew McConnell
Curatorial Statement
This exhibition explores the work of four artists who utilize perceptual and cognitive transition points as a means for generating new form and content.
The moment in time when an entity changes from one state to another is known scientifically as a phase transition point. A common example is found in the physical state changes of water. For example, an ice cube slowly heated from any temperature below 32 degrees Fahrenheit experiences no change until it reaches 33 degrees. At that moment, a transition point is reached and a solid state becomes a liquid state. These artists explore experiences that provide for new phase transition points to develop within the individual. By challenging notions of our common states of perception, they look to offset those assumed realities and take notice of new ways of experiencing our surroundings.
Lisa Walcott explores the subtle movements of things often unnoticed. By creating artwork that re-creates those experiences, she provides for the viewer the same opportunity. Stopping herself in space, she is able to examine what is still moving in the environments around her. Pausing and observing, Walcott focuses on building a new system of identifying with our built environments. She then uses those experiences to create work that allows us the opportunity to take notice of what would have otherwise been disregarded.
In this exhibition, Terrence Campagna’s work is the product of a journey; the action of relocating the body into new environments and studying the “newness” of those spaces. He mines the experience of walking, often extremely long distances, as a point of departure for the creation of new work. During these departures, he creates new viewpoints in his imagery that not only record and document, but also enhance and extrapolate his experiences during his journey.
Using another artist’s work as a starting point, Mathew McConnell remakes the forms of others and blurs the lines of artistic originality, diffusing our notions of ownership. As he “re-makes” objects based on revamped viewpoints and compositional arrangements, he, as well as the process, asks when the work becomes “his” – exploring the moment when the work’s ownership transitions from one maker to the next.
Linda Lopez creates work that brings to light the everyday conversations between body and object as we move through our environments. She listens to how a body reacts and adjusts to objects in space and uses that as a point of departure for her work. A static chair otherwise thought to be inanimate, takes on an animate reality when viewed as something that causes a body to move or adjust to it in space. These moments create a transition point for her as she builds a new perceptual awareness of the dialog between static and active agents in three dimensional space.
Our bodies have evolved to have a system in place to train our minds to build a hierarchy of perceptual information. Like a filter, our subconscious mind parses out “less important” information in an effort to streamline our mental energies. During that process, however, we may lose sight of the benefit that a heightened awareness of our surroundings may bring. Whether it is the subtle and otherwise unnoticed movement in space or the way our bodies identify and conform to objects in our environments, these artists bring attention to the importance of building that awareness. They utilize those experiences to generate new work, and in doing so, they allow the rest of us to peer through the same portal and reach that transition point whereby new systems of perception are built.
