Encaustic Conference 2011: T-Shirts or Momigami?

Hotel Fair: David A. Clark's T-Shirt Project

One of the events at this year's International Encaustic Conference was the "Hotel Art Fair". This event provided an opportunity for the conference attendees to display their own work and  view the work of others. It's quite a fun and dynamic concept.

If you'd like to see more photos about the event, you can visit my friend Nancy Natale's terrific blog Art in the Studio.

David in the midst of his installation.

A close up of one of the lines of shirts

This is what David wrote to describe his installation:

MADE WITH FIRE - The T-Shirt ProjectEncaustic Monoprints on Handmade Asuka Paper T-Shirts 

This project was inspired by the need to make my work less precious, less controlled. I began thinking that I needed to destroy my work in order to move forward in my practice. My painting, and especially my print work has always been inspired and defined by forward motion. So, for me, the challenge of this project began when I was thinking of a way to transport my work to the conference without the fear of ruining it by creasing it or folding it. So, the logical conclusion was to destroy the work first, thereby embracing the fear of destruction. As long as the destruction was of my own doing it became part of the piece, part of the impulse. By taking the fear of an unknown outcome and encorporating it into the process it became part of the work. The act of destroying the prints and the paper they were printed on transformed them. Fire, heat and the hands of man have the ability to destroy, but they also have the ability to renew, leaving behind only the impulse, and that obsessive need to move forward.

— David A. Clark 2011 

More shirts in front of the waterview window

The shirts all have David's iconic arrow, as well as some text. Here's what he has to say about the words:

The sayings on the t-shirts I showed are what I would call visual mantras. They are usually thoughts that tend to linger at the periphery of my day to day thinking. Thoughts that rest and cannot be swept away. So, for this particular project the t-shirts say, Follow the Arrow, Be the Arrow, Distance Makes it Better, Made with Fire, Leader Follower, The Object is Just the Catalyst, Never Grow Old, Time Stands Still, Look Beyond, Break the Wall and Could Be Better. The are all superimposed on different arrows which for me represent the impulse. The point from which we directionally move forward.

Another view

Catherine Nash and I spent some time talking with David Clark about his installation of the Tee Shirt project. (You can read more about David in my interview with him from last year). Catherine and I had quite a bit of fun viewing this work. Catherine is an artist who has lots of experience and knowledge and has written about papermaking, so it was interesting for me to be a fly on the wall and listen to them chat. She commented that the shirts are like momigami   [momimasu = to wrinkle; gami = paper (one of numerous words for paper).

What I enjoyed most about experiencing this work is that it had a very strong emotional energy for me. It is simple, clear, the words resonate, and the shirts have not been worn but they feel as though they have. And I think it is a strong body of work; a step forward for David and a departure from his previous work.