Emerging Artists

"The work I am exhibiting in this show consists of everything that is now on my blog- in its original, physical form. Over the last few years I have focused primarily on writing and making time-space drawings; most of which have been made while watching dance.There are also many photographs, videos, and audio tracks on the site.

The blog itself, serves asa way to share what I am doing and most importantly as an archive of my activity.It is the work which it documents- what happens daily on paper with pencil, that interests me most. Thus it is when I am drawing that I feel I am engaged in a kind of blogging. The daily activity of it, the time it takes me, the interactions with my materials- these are the aspects of blogging that appeal to me.

Blog: My website is compiled mainly out of 81/2 x 11 pieces of white computer paper, which I have written and drawn on with pencil. I have scanned in all my drawings, notes, and documents to put on the site. the information is displayed in order of its being posted; newest things at the top. The site does not function as a normal blog, I am the only one who posts to it, and I am more likely to add a chunk of information every few weeks or months than everyday. One of the benefits of the site, has been the ability to view different documents of my work next to one-another- highlighting new intersections between my projects.

Drawings: Many of my drawings have been scanned into my computer, digitally reworked, and printed. I have created multiple versions of each image by privileging different information. For example, the information from the back-side of the scanned page becomes visible if I save the file in color, whereas in grayscale, only pencil-line from the front of the paper can be seen.

Writing: I write every day. I store these writings for several months, and then rework and compile them into new bodies. Currently I’m working with a collection of writings from last summer which have been organized into short fragments and placed together based on several themes; things which I can and cannot touch (objects, bodies, places, experiences, locations, memories), the corporeality of dissociative disorders including multiple personalities, and dis-ease- meaning both illness, and discomfort with the unfamiliar, indefinite, or unspecified. I have created multiple versions of each text by transposing the subjects and objects- I, you, they, we, this, that, here, there, and so on.

What is interesting about the intersections of these different projects – is what happens in between, in the mediation of a live moment like a dance, through my drawings. Of my drawings, scanned and re-presented in the virtual space of my website. And what is exciting is that I never quite know where each project is going. I enjoy beginning projects, perhaps more than anything, I enjoy continuing them, but the work remains in a constant state of becoming, of fluxus- as does everything else. Even though we think we begin and end things, we don’t really- it’s a myth. Though things do remain in certain states for a period of time they do not stop there. When not constantly directed towards a finished product, things can take the time they take, and I can remain longer, be more present in each moment of their making. This is slow food, this is life."
Kate Abarbanel