Blurring the Line

Blurring the Line
Kala Art Institute
Berkeley, CA

October 21 - November 27, 2010

Blurring the Line presents works by David Fought, Wendy Hough, Sandra Ono and Robert Ortbal. Curated by Lauren Davies, Kala’s Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, this group exhibition at Kala Gallery investigates elusive experiences relating to visual perception and bodily senses. Drawings and sculpture created by repetitive physical actions and the complex massing of odd materials share the gallery with works consisting of simple lines that lead us directly from here to there. The linear qualities of sculpture and the sculptural possibilities of drawing are realized in this four-person exhibition with works ranging from the sparsely elegant to the obsessively quirky.

I have for the first time started combining sculpture and drawings on paper to help question the primacy of an object. I have always been fascinated with the power of an object, that is why I make sculpture. Recently, fueled by interest in the writings of contemporary cosmologists, I started asking the question - is information more essential than the thing itself? Is the DNA more essential than the species? Are the blueprints more vital than the building? I don’t believe I have any clear answers to these questions; instead they have prompted me to explore my work and ideas two-dimensionally.

The works on paper can search out similar ideas contained in the sculpture. However, freed from gravity, marks on paper can explore notions like delicacy, and absence versus presence, from very different angles -- giving me access to a new set of questions, such as “Is this work more connected to matter or energy?” In turn, hopefully, this might enable us all to have more room inside ourselves.