FLYPAPER – DOUGLAS DEGGES | SARAH PHYLLIS SMITH

On view until February 25
Closing reception February 22 from 6-7:30pm

Flypaper is an ongoing collaborative project by artists Douglas Degges and Sarah Phyllis Smith. The work explores relationships to land and landscape through the pairing and layering of text and image. At a time when we have immediate access to anything, from sourcing information on the internet to our ability to capture, store, and share images at a moment’s notice, analogue processes seem well poised for critically engaging newer forms of visual expression. This collaborative project is not only a celebration of the corporeal or material world but also a reflection on the speed at which images are produced and consumed. Image-making is approached as an intuitive and physical thinking process where mixed media and raw material become images as well as containers for shared memories.

For Sarah, whose work is often rooted in autobiographical narrative, this work is a move toward improvisation and abstraction. For Douglas, this work marks an embrace of representational imagery and storytelling. This collaborative project, when exhibited, becomes an inquiry into the nature of authorship and heterogeneity, as all works are fully collaborative and make use of hybrid forms and seemingly divergent studio processes and image-making strategies. The work is often exhibited in such a way as to highlight this. Works are installed according to a kind of cadence established by competing visuals and significant jumps in scale, as seen in the SPIROL Art Gallery.