Leaf is Folding and Unfolding
I develop projects by starting with works on or of paper, turning to three-dimensional objects, then extending the images and forms to performances in space and time, documented as digital prints and video. I consider representational imagery and abstract formal elements as equally potent conveyors of emotion, meaning, message, and ideas. I remain inspired by Cezanne’s claim: “...right now a moment of time is passing! [The artist] must become that moment.”
From an autumn walk I returned home with a fallen leaf. Covid seemed to render the season particularly beautiful and affectingly brief, the single leaf emblematic of both attributes. I felt powerfully inspired to possess that leaf! I unfolded and folded, crushed and crumpled, then tore the edges of a brown paper bag, until it resembled a leaf. I then drew the leaf’s image in pencil on a separate sheet of white paper. As I observed the actual leaf, holding it between my fingers by its stem, twirling and turning it, engaged by contemplation, I videotaped the movements. I set the leaf down on the wooden floor of my study, and let it go.
Later, in the process of editing the digitally recorded leaf studies and altering the duration of transitions between segments of video, I discovered completely unexpected superimposed images that I immediately “grabbed” as screenshots. The short-lived ‘film-stills’ seen in Leaf is Folding and Unfolding (Quartet) are my attempt to seize the beauty of the autumn leaf and recapitulate the brevity of the season, as I experienced it on my walk.
In the spirit of both Cezanne’s claim and Chuang Tzu’s paradoxical question - “...I dreamt I was a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly dreaming I am a man?” - I ask: during these passing moments, did I possess a leaf, or did a leaf possess me?