An adventurer, a neuron, a hero, a truth-seeker. All depart one location and arrive at another. The pathway between can be fraught with conflicts, synapses and moments of discovery. These encounters become memories to be accessed further along in the journey. One either moves forward or backward on their own path or simply reflects upon it and the challenges it produces. This exhibition presents three recent graduates from George Mason University’s Master of Fine Arts program who explore themes of pathways and reflection; Sarah Irvin, Anne Smith, and Sarah Zuckerman Dolan.
Sarah Irvin’s large-scale, squeegeed works on paper address the degeneration of her grandfather’s abilities to access memories and language as he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. She begins by writing a single cursive word in ink on water resistant paper. While the paper is still wet, she squeegees the word away, leaving behind a vague remnant of the word and transforming it into a new composition. The obscured text represents the difficulty her grandfather faced in accessing his memories and the words to describe them.
A sprawling scroll functions as a practice in repetition for Anne Smith, and also serves as a way of walking a path from Something to Nothing, as the title suggests. The images in the center of the scroll are the result of Smith’s journey that began with carving a woodblock, printing it, and carving and printing it again ad infinitum down the length of the paper. It is at once a practice of self-discipline at self-liberation.
Sarah Zuckerman Dolan accesses the limits of her own body with Lengsel, hand woven copper wire laid directly on the floor. The diameter of the piece reflects Dolan’s desire to reach the farthest distance possible. Lengsel is the Norwegian word for “longing,” a concept manifest in Dolan’s journey to create a work that pushes her to her physical limit.
This exhibition features a range of techniques including printmaking, installation, and painting.