You and me and us and me and you

About a year back I decided I wanted to make work that I could just make on my own, spontaneously and anywhere. I was reacting against the Takahashi pre-performance preparation that had to happen. At the time, they required other people, stretching canvas, setting up electronics equipment, a projector, and then having all the things communicate with each other. It was hard to do spontaneously. So I decided to just draw. White paper. Black pen. And me.

In tandem with those drawings I started becoming curious about color. There was shift in the Takahashi performances from paint to [colored] light, and this set up no longer required me to stretch a canvas or use a projector–another move towards pre-performance simplicity (though pursuing this colored light stand wasn’t done for that purpose specifically). I could just plug in and go. Though it’s still very technology heavy, spontaneity and technology are not in opposition. So now, working in the muck of the Takahashi lights and the ink drawings, it felt to me like I was exploring two things: precise line work (absent of the consideration for color), and expansive pure color.

Yesterday, during a Takahashi rehearsal with Linda Jankowska and Rodrigo Constanzo it occurred to me the water color works are actually perfect for use in the Takahashi light set-up. It’s like one part of my brain has just let another part of my brain in on what it’s been working on. I think these works are somehow perfect populators of the Color Picker sample space (the color granular synthesis max patch), which before only had a “place-holder” image. I really want everything to be personal, and resonate with me. The body of line drawing work I’ve been doing, now with the addition of water colors, are hugely significant to me and this period of my life–creative and personal. So here we are.

I just want to make beautiful things…and it feels like an explosion.

(above work owned by Rocio Bolaños)

Photos by Linda Jankowska.