Clutch, thread on linen, 15 x 25 inches. 2012
suck squeeze bang blow
A solo exhibition of hand-stitched works on linen held at Kesting Ray Gallery in New York, during the late spring of 2012.
Vintage vehicle engine diagrams were deconstructed and layered with 17th century atlas maps to explore ideas about time, movement, propulsion, and mechanical processes in relation to those of the human body. Repetition here is key, with a deliberate tension created between the rapid-fire action represented in each engine diagram, and the slow, meditative pace of the act of stitching itself (each work took weeks, if not months, to make). The rather suggestive title - Suck Squeeze Bang Blow - refers both to the literal action of a 4-stroke engine and to the human drive - to create, to reproduce, to move steadily forward, into and through space.
For more information, read the exhibition catalogue essay by Kelly Baum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
