Eternal Rhythms, Part 2

Jessie Giles + Masha Kouznetsova

| Note from curator |

Practice

As a follow up to last week’s introduction to our artists, I asked the Kouznetsova and Giles to make work in response to one another’s practice.

For Giles, crochet is a ritual of catharsis. Here the needlework itself becomes a stamp that impresses moments from this process of self-care. Each ring is either gradually made or unravelled; with each doing or un-doing, the artist bleaches-stamps-rinses-dries a single crocheted piece. The substrate fabric becomes the bearer of impressions, holding each layer of action while the bleach also eats away at it. The stamped images merge as the whitening agent casts out the former impression, becoming less of a semblance of one and more of a muddling of many.

‘Process A’, the rings of the crocheted piece are unravelled while ‘Process B’ (following the images counterclockwise) the rings are re-worked. Speaking to in Kouznetsova’s gifs, these short-lived impressions are represented in stills and animated as a gif (‘Process A’). 'Process C' is a study of a third reworked crochet, a still from watching the bleach discharge, the impression just barely becoming more intense over time.

Kouznetsova captures Giles’ act of crochet in her gestural studies. Video of Giles' hands, in their rapidly practiced movements, served as source material for Kouznetsova’s gesturally rendered illustrations. Each set of sequential images (worked on three at a time) was so seemingly similar that it was not until animation did the slight movements of Giles’ hands become evident. The method of scanning the images for animation became yet another point of intrigue and an experiment to further abstract spontaneous movement, producing the notable variation between ‘flat scan’ gif and ‘lifted scan’ gif.

This week, I focus on the process that drives Giles and Kouznetsova’s practices because I believe these steps define their work. In their process, in their repetitive doing, there is a sense of resonance which the the work is made of.

– Chanel Kim