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| REVOLUTION V (2015), Monotype, serigraphy. and lasercut on three layers of rice paper, 29 x 29 inches |
The art of Amy Sands presents models by
which we may interpret the primordial structures and charismatic energy around
us. A certain approach to artistic creation belies a felicitous understanding
of what is most essential, misunderstood, or obscured in nature, and redirects
it to our aesthetic comprehension. Printmaking is about process, and each of
the names that are given to the types of prints carry with them the association
we have to a particular process and its resulting product, which carries with
it the aura of action that preceded it. Yet complexity can enter into the
welter of intentions that aid in the conceptualization of these works. If the
artist has ideas about her final product that carry over from other creative
disciplines, such as sculpture or lace making, then the proliferation of
stylistic motifs will dominate the work’s appeal, and will diverge from the
assumption of traditional print making practices. This sort of dynamic is
actively present in Sands’ work, and her ability to conceive it and
progressively transform her medium will not only challenge the viewer but will
alter how we think about art. Individually and cumulatively Sands builds an
esthetic that envelops the viewer with a connection to medium and its
manifestation of specific beauty.
To speak of printmaking in general is not
to immediately understand how Sands interprets it. Sands does not merely construct
a base image from which to create repeated impressions. She makes works that
promote an ephemeral quality, with serigraphs and monoprints often combined in
the same composite work. Her impetus is to create a layered effect that
disingenuously plays out the ephemeral aspects on all of two or three sheets in
concert with one another, leaving the viewer to question the constructs by
which we judge surface detail—when in fact what she is after is a sort of
visual noise.
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| REVOLUTION VII (2015), Monotype, serigraphy, and lasercut on three layers of rice paper, 15 x 15 inches |
The attraction to circles in Sands’ recent
work possesses a range of available metaphor. Most notably, these forms were
for the most part absent in early bodies of work, which attempted to achieve
degrees of ephemerality within a deepening field of backgrounded hues, yet to
fill in the middle and fore ground with naturally opposed tonal and graphical
forms. Her newest work focuses upon the tonal qualities which illuminated past
bodies of work yet were perhaps passed over by viewers in an attempt to read surface
markings, dense and diverse as they were, rather than take in the work as a
whole. Her new work is a Revolution in more than title. The paper, left to its
raw state and dramatized by minute lighting, creates a dissolving silhouette
with romantic undertones. The work is achieved in some cases by lasercutting
the immensely fragile rice paper so that stacks of similar sheets press into
the blank spaces, creating a crush of material, though it’s only where the
lattice of each sheet interfaces with the fugitive sources of illumination that
its full effect transforms the experience for the viewer. An incandescent
quality animates these works, and is especially present in Revolution V, VII,
and VIII, in which the use of layered sheets of rice paper creates an effect
that glows upon the wall like the lost light of a distant star. The effect of
combining, within the same series, works that emit an otherworldly illumination
with ones that present the filigreed, seemingly dexterous details of handmade
embroidery, compels the use of mere esthetic attention to come out of the
shadows.
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| REVOLUTION VIII (2015), Monotype, serigraphy. and lasercut on three layers of rice paper, 15 x 15 inches |
Beauty is elusive despite being
constructive in these works. There is a timelessness to circular forms, what in
some cases takes on the fossilized appearance of a sand dollar, while in
another example her use of laser cuts made through color-infused paper implies
the filigreed stitching of lace curtains or stained glass windows. The use of
illumination—of real time, durational light, ephemeral, that is to say
transient and even fleeting as in nature, is essential to a quality aesthetic
encounter with Sands’ work; though given its vulnerability, this would
additionally foreshorten the life of her materials. Yet to see them only on a
computer screen or in a catalogue is not to give justice to what is strongest
in them. The extremely minute aspect of her materials and their reliance upon
chromatically charged elements, releasing a cumulative effect through the free
flow of forces such as light and wind, like blood or water, projects a quality
of charismatic personification, as if nature itself were speaking with us.
Amy this is a terrific and very insight piece David has written on your work. Good luck on your up-coming show in NYC. Stuart Lehrman
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