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Judith Braun,
Rowan Willigan Beyond Ritual: September 23rd 4 to 6 followed by a potluck. The Re Institute is pleased to present the work of Judith Braun and Rowan Willigan. Both artists have a history of making large site-specific installations and both artists adhere to distinctive personal systems to generate their work. I always hope that the show will evolve from its starting point and I think these two artists have found surprising ways to intersect their practices both visually and conceptually, while maintaining their own voices within the space. The gallery will be closed for 2 weeks before the exhibition opens to allow for the completion of these exciting, site-specific works  Judith Braun Orange Chorus 52" x 25" carbon photocopy on paper mounted on vinyl 2023 Judith Braun: In 2003 I began drawing curved lines and then copying them, in reverse, creating bilateral symmetries. It was an engaging process, in itself, but I was also intrigued by how symmetry immediately made the random lines take on suggestive forms. It seemed that anything became something, through symmetry, and I was soon hooked. I began reading about its ubiquitous presence in math, music, the brain, the cosmos - everything. Along the way I came across the 18th-century physicist, Ernst Chladni, who demonstrated how particles of sand on a vibrating plate formed myriad symmetrical patterns. I thought to myself: “This is why everything in nature is symmetrical-because the universe is vibrating.“ With this profundity in mind, I decided to make symmetry the cornerstone of my practice going forward, and I chose carbon as my medium, because it, too, is a primal element of life. I called the project, Symmetrical Procedures, and I foresaw that these parameters, of symmetry and carbon mediums, would serve to both hone and generate possibilities in an ongoing way, as in, forever. I would arrive at freedom through discipline. The first works were graphite pencil drawings, abstract and minimal, which led to the charcoal fingerprint wall drawings, using my symmetrical body as a drawing tool, followed by the black carbon-based paintings on raw canvas with large circles morphing into psychedelic heads. This brings me to the work in this show as I continue under the Symmetrical Procedure umbrella. The material here is carbon-toner photocopy on paper. I’d done quite a bit of photocopy work in the early 90s, usurping office as art supplies, but now that I’m working exclusively with carbon mediums, it fits my practice in a new way. And, it happens that carbon toner on acid free paper is stable and archival. For these pieces I’m placing a range of materials on the glass of the photocopy machine, from live flowers to crumpled paper to a scrub brush, and employing the various copier functions of enlargement, density, light, and motion. Once I have a batch of images that seem interesting to work with, I begin to piece and collage them onto a backing surface. The small ones are on black vinyl sheets and the large ones are on Tyvek, a synthetic paper. I do not predetermine what the ultimate image will be because I want to let it appear of its own volition. I’m acting as a magnet, a forager, with these somewhat random materials that are looking to coalesce. I was a bit surprised as they became figurative, but reminded that I began as a realistic figure painter fifty odd years ago, I decided not to interfere. I just let these unpredictable characters emerge from the pile of carbon photocopy prints to have a life of their own.  Judith Braun Contrapposto 9' x 6.5' carbon photocopy on paper mounted on Tyvek 2023  Rowan Willigan Rowan Willigan: Since January 1, 2021, I have been creating 2 drawings every day. This ritual was born out of a desire for a consistent, daily, bite-sized practice away from my larger murals and artworks, a framework within which I could create something everyday, anywhere. It travels with me, it helps me process, and tells a story over time that unfolds organically with the help of my hand, into something I can’t possibly predetermine. I bring it to life, while it simultaneously has a life of its own. This practice continually enables me to build a visual language, and become intimately connected to my hand and my inner world. One drawing each day I keep, as the bedrock of an ever-growing body of intact work, and the second drawing each day is to make available to the community so that one entire collection of these works will eventually exist scattered around the world, given forever homes in other people's lives. This interactive element feels different to me than selling one-off artworks to clients. Each person that brings one of these Daily Drawings into their life stewards a small piece of something larger, something that continues to live and breathe. Now a meditative constant in my life, this practice consists of 1,682 drawings–and counting. Each 3” x 3” drawing acts as a visual diary entry, marking time and place, building a conglomerate of larger work over the years of my life. These drawings range from abstract to more figurative and representational, but are always intuitive and spontaneous. For this show, I’m excited to not only show my collection of Daily Drawings, but to expand on the ritual, by stretching this visual language into new realms. With my larger works on canvas, and the site-specific mural, I explore the ways in which I can infinitely knit and quilt with accumulated puzzle pieces of time, experimenting with scale to unlock new iterations of the illustrations. My Daily Drawings, usually standing alone, existing within the confines of their individual papers, now commingle, and interact with each other. The infinities that exist within the possible combinations of these illustrations, mirror back to me the serendipity of everyday life, and coexistence of beings on earth, each with a unique recollection of days gone by, punctuated by moments of chance interaction and play, all within the same arena that is our world.  Rowan Willigan  Rowan Willigan  Rowan Willigan daily draw January 2022 |