Installation Art

I've been considering an installation art piece for the better part of a year, and today I submitted my first one for an exhibit in April. It was very satisfying work; I quite enjoyed the planning and executing of the details; the narrative grew as I added layers of colour and objects.

This 48" by 24", free-standing, mixed media work is called 'Broken Childhood'.

The broken child's chair represents the end of innocence, the layers of colour, the building of a protective shell. The red is pain, the cream colour is neutrality and the blue-aqua layer is emotion-hope. Some areas have been exposed to show all three colours and the raw wood of the background. The network of strings, echo the connecting and disconnecting of experiences; the knots and wrapped bits are episodes of trying to fix problems or keeping things together, while the unattached strings depict loose ends. Most of the strings are stretched tight to illustrate tension.

All of the objects appear to be falling or suspended in time portraying unfinished business. Will they ever land? What will happen if it all does? Could it be a resolution? Anything is possible...