“…the better to hold you with, my dear…” New work by Lisa Conn
“…the better to hold you with, my dear…”
August 2015 at Space 1026
“…the better to hold you with, my dear…”
new paintings and installation by Lisa Conn
“I once read that wood can handle pain that people cannot. The old medicine men used it as a method of healing. I believe there to be much truth in myth and this exhibition develops my idea of “tree saint girls” as represented in my most recent work. Einstein’s “Spooky Theory”, at its most surface level, states that when two particles are joined and later become separated by a spacial distance, should one undergo a change, the other will “feel” it at almost the exact time. Immediately I see possibility and magic within this thought; and it has the opportunity to take on a mythological presence. I’ve made a series of relief style paintings that cross the threshold into installation, heavily influenced by the magic I find within this theory, exploring it in terms of relationships between my created characters/ creatures and the relationship between said characters and their former selves, imagining an organism dividing into another separate being within the crossroads of a choice. One possibility of the theory’s connection to martyrdom plays into the idea that when a being suffers, perhaps somewhere else in the universe there is another being that
feels that pain with equal force. This theory is a catalyst to inform stories and personalities within each of the saint girls that I’ve created. With this installation I hope to inspire awe and reverence, and at the very least, a moment of escape from personal reality.”
– Lisa Conn