The Knowledge

My department chair sent me this beautifully-written story about what has been described as "the hardest test in the world," the London taxi-drivers' exam. The story basically embodies what I aim to communicate in my own work: the prospect of epic and irreversible loss of human knowledge and human capacity when we prioritize economic utility over all else.
The Knowledge

"Wall (After Marfa)" at Dallas Art Fair, April 2015

I installed this piece at the ADA Gallery booth at the Dallas Art Fair in April, 2015. A statement about the piece is here.

Process Pictures:

Troweling "mortar"

One wall chunk done

Four wall chunks curing

Soaking out the bricks

Bricks still soaking...

Digging out the softened bricks

Scholastic Aptitude series at Untitled Miami 2014

I have work in ADA Gallery's booth at Untitled Contemporary Art Fair in Miami right now. One of my pieces appears in Hi Fructose today.

The three sculptures in the Scholastic Aptitude series are made from notebook and sketchbook paper that has been stack-cut, custom hole-punched a few pages at a time, and then painstakingly spiral-bound. Two of these pieces suggest mountainous terrain, while the third is a woven structure with spiral bindings serving as flexible hinges. Form and Content (Internal Logic) is inspired by the notion that a material object can be the “vessel” for meaning or the bearer of a theory. Notes taken in the conceptualization stage of the piece are used to build the physical piece. Among these notes are quotes from architect Christopher Alexander, art historian E.H. Gombrich, and others, on the nature of pattern and the role of "rules" in patternmaking. Additionally one of Sol LeWitt’s “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” is transcribed. This is an absurd attempt to “overstuff” an object with meaning, resulting in an object that seems merely self-absorbed. The piece called Horror Vacui celebrates the moment in which the excitement of acquiring a pristine new sketchbook turns to intimidation. Application of a Theory acknowledges the often dubious connection between a form and its ostensible “message.” The piece might also suggest a child who has devised a labour-intensive way to avoid her written homework.

Form and Content (Internal Logic), 2014

15" x 21" x 10"

Object made of generative notes towards its own manufacture

College-ruled notebook paper, chipboard, aluminum binding coil, ink 

 

Horror Vacui, 2014

30" x 20" x 8.5"

Drawing paper, chipboard, wire binding, misc.

 

Horror Vacui, detail

Application of a Theory, 2014

17.25 x 17.25 x 1.25

Legal-ruled notebook paper, chipboard, aluminum binding coil

Thanks for the cool review, Hyperallergic!

 Thanks, Allison Meier! Cool take on the show!

 Review in Hyperallergic.

Shannon Wright: Heroic Measures, at Mulherin + Pollard

Folly (Colosseum of Rome) 2, 2014

Archival dye-infused print on aluminum

27.7” x 37.4”

Folly (Colosseum of Rome) 1, 2014

Archival dye-infused print on aluminum

27.7” x 37.4”

Installation view: Folly (Colosseum of Rome), 2014

Galvanized steel pipe and fence hardware

88” x 141” x 116”

Installation view: Folly (Colosseum of Rome), 2014

Galvanized steel pipe and fence hardware

88” x 141” x 116”

Flourish (Public Art), 2014

Galvanized steel pipe, hardware, sandbags

65” x 96” x 20.5”

Flourish (Public Art) 1, 2014

Archival dye-infused print on aluminum

16” x 24”

Flourish (Public Art) 2, 2014

Archival dye-infused print on aluminum

16” x 24”

Historic Preservationist Series (Heavy Equipment Tires)

Four archival dye-infused prints on aluminum, 30” x 28”

2014
with Brendan Coyle

Snaidhm Cheilteach (Celtic knot)

After Irish cable knit patterns

Gireh Chini (knotted/ interlaced pattern)

After stone tiles in the Sircali Medrese, Konya, Turkey, 1240 AD

Ice-Ray (cracked-ice pattern)

After Chinese window lattice patterns, Szechwan, 1850 AD

Parcham (Banner/flag pattern)

            After tiles in the Alcazar de Seville, Spain, 1364 AD

Contributors to these projects:

Brendan Coyle, Digital Artist
Ninh Filip
Pete Farrell III
Michael Farrell  

THANK YOU!

Coliseum Installation Pictures

In January, 2014, I installed the piece called "Folly (Colosseum of Rome)" with the help of a few current and former graduate students: Nathan Cox, Chauncey Rasmussen, Biagio Scarpello, and Nin Filip (whose chief role was photo guru.)

Assembling the coliseum in its first location

Nathan Cox checking the quality of our eyeballed oval

Our "Brady Bunch" group photo with the assembled coliseum

This was the vantage point for the final selected photo. Camera lens and yoga mat  provided by Nin Filip. 

Summer 2013 Update

Last year, my entire summer was stolen from me when my landlords announced that they were not renewing my lease. They explained that they were going to turn my 680 square-foot one-bedroom apartment into a two bedroom apartment by building two new walls in the living room. (They did this in about five days and raised the rent by $425.00. Impressive!) So, I spent the entire summer searching for an affordable apartment in San Jose, and then moving, during this terrible rent spike. This summer I was determined to make up as much as possible for lost time. So, I haven't done a day of vacation-type things, but have just worked on art (plus the inevitable school issues that come up on most days.)
While I work on new projects, I have two pieces in a show called Navigating the New that's currently up at Pro Arts in Oakland. Here is a review of the show, which came out the other day. And here is a picture from Pro Arts' Facebook page.

Photo via Pro Arts, Oakland