Viral Series

In this work a single unit is accumulated until a critical mass of form emerges.The work wrestles with concepts of growth and suggests interpretive polarities. Simultaneously referencing swirling leaves, seeds, insects or birds the suggestion of natural form also contains patterns with subtle undertow of potential destruction from swarms, cellular division, or spiraling galactic collisions.

My primary investigation is in this gray area of interpretation. Globalization has a peculiar effect of simultaneously reinforcing and dissolving boundaries. I think of the idea of “viral” as a contemporary expression of chaotic but exuberant human communication that can be positive or negative. But the term also infers insidious, invisible fear manifesting through destruction of personal records in computers, micro-organic terrain, or dogmatic terrorist cells. Nature is gorgeous, cyclical, and often destructive to our societal attempts at order.

Capturing concrete three-dimensional space and also intimating illusory depth in painting and drawing, my work often hovers between sculpture and painting. There is a parasitic quality to my current series that relies on the architectural conditions or shape of the room, either in the overall form as a site-specific installation or changeable in the sense that the work lends an ethereal element as the pieces are individuated from the walls and cast shadows that move changing forms with varying light. If a viewer closely examines the pieces, it becomes evident that each part of the multiple has uniquely painted characteristics. The components are amassed to make a whole with ambiguous meaning. Some of the elements in the group are transfigured to subvert the composition in unsettling or harmonious ways, pending your own viewpoint.

Carol Elkovich

2010