De-Composition: Indecent Exposure, an installation on the campus of Bellevue College during Earth Week, April 22-26, 2013

 

This project was conceived to be part of the Earth Week activities at the college. It is situated among our endeavors of social responsibility at Bellevue College to acknowledge our place in and our responsibility towards our environment on a limited Earth.

 

Drawing from the figure has been a part of my art practice for over ten years. My habit/ritual is to participate in a drawing session once or twice weekly.  I have accumulated stacks of drawing pads filled with drawings. Consciousness of the consumption and accumulation of paper has inspired me to repeatedly try to think of a way to "recycle" the drawings.

 

Although I consider the figure drawings "art parts" to be incorporated into other work they document the hours and the efforts in the process towards mastery.  Many are quick gesture drawings completed in two to three minutes; others were allotted much more time. I consider this my practice rather than my professional "body of work."

 

I was quite excited when I had the idea of using the drawings for this project. It's a great way to not only recycle some paper but hopefully to communicate more lofty ideas. Ideally, Decomposition: Indecent Exposure will speak to issues relating to humans as part of nature rather than as the agent in the nature/culture dichotomy.

 

My intention is for the environmental effects of weather to impact and decompose the work in its own way: wind, rain, and sun.

In my own work, the idea can be traced back twenty years. On a trip through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania I noticed the clothes of the Amish people hung out to dry. I repeatedly counted seven dresses on a clothes line. When I returned from that trip I did a series of prints of that image. Here I have hung "sheets " of paper.