may the tide

a plus/space installation by

Jessica tawczynski

curated by marine cornuet

that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
[...]
From Blessing the Boats, by Lucille Clifton

Much like in Lucille Clifton's poem Blessing the Boats whose first line inspired the exhibition's title, Jessica Tawczynski seems to urge herself and the viewer to travel, with the tide, "beyond the face of fear." In her most recent work, the artist conjures up fragmented maps, paints wound sites, marks the paper with cuts, and gives her work tools to gather its pieces and remain whole, in spite of its inner rifts.

Humor is one of these tools: little paper eyes, mounted on thin legs, become crab-like healing workers. They reassemble a large work entitled "Survival Mode" with rope threaded through nautical grommets, or try to patch up a damaged oar. The figure of the boat, which first appeared in some paintings as an upside-down vessel resembling a side-cut of a hull, became central to Tawczynski’s work in the past two years, especially as the artist began to research sailor stories in Iceland, where she has been on several residencies. The boat as a female figure, a carrier of knowledge and a form that may be fit to weather storms or be destroyed by them, is a familiar shape in most of the works included in the show.

In some of the collages, like "The Great Wide Open" and "Origin Point", the boat is a mere outline of a hull as seen from above, and almost becomes a portal that lies in front or beyond the maps drawn by the artist. These maps are constructed from the multiple geographies that have been part of Tawczynski’s life: a map of Nickerson State Park in Brewster, MA, printed photos of the artist's studio, modified maps of New York City. They are layered with cutouts and painted references to science as an observation practice and an attempt at understanding the universe we inhabit. Printed diagrams of electromagnetic waves in a distant galaxy and of the Big Bang Theory, and lines of negative space orbiting around a sun or a moon are other situating elements.

In a continued gesture of world-building and mapping, Tawczynski creates attempted itineraries that build upon what is most concrete: several of her pieces include monoprints of the land upon which she has treaded, and of crumpled plastic sheets laying on the floor of her studio - the illusion of terrain becomes entwined with the real "floor" where the print was created. All the works are linked through citations of each other and indications of particular physical places. Thanks to these visual echoes, each new work seems to participate to the artist's uncovering of a new corner from a larger, secret geography. The mountain range in the painting "Her Spirit Lifted Me" becomes the horizontal cut in "Survival Mode"; the collages all include printed photos of previous work or of places where the work was made; "Origin Point" also includes a cut-up print of the painting "Her Spirit Lifted Me".

What happened at a certain location and time is reconstructed, mapped out, and left on the paper or canvas for future re-exploration or interpretation. Through their representation, events and locations become elastic and graspable, allowing the artist to manipulate them, distance herself from them and, as Lucille Clifton would say, sail through this to that.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation,
the Perlemeter Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.