I’m intrigued by the idea of the landscape in abstract sculpture. In my most recent work, this landscape or environment is a hybrid. For the piece, Untitled (Platform), interior paneling serves as a skin to a platform and ramp coated with Skid-tec® and paint—creating a non-slip surface similar to that of a diving board. A night light remains a constant beacon of security and on the floor, a slip of birch luan, painted blue like a pool of water, extends out from sculpture’s edge. Created and informed by the materials of the sculpture, there is a blurring of interior and exterior, domestic and out-of-doors. I explore this hybrid of place in terms of implied structure and activity. Observation decks, roadside vistas, nature walks, diving boards and backyard patios—these structures or objects reference activity that is navigated, constructed, and often a benign leisure experience.
This action / inaction binary is also fraught with tension and risk. Recognizable materials imply a familiarity of experience, relationship and social strata. Relationship is often at the core of many of my concepts. I work in the realities of relationship, which are often neither exultant nor sentimental, but rather awkward, mundane and honest. Sculpturally, I’m interested in exploring the visual language and experience of relationship. There is a physical and psychological narrative reflected in the presence of the everyday and mundane that questions our posturing of stability and security, comfort and restriction.
Ailsa Staub
July 2010