Holly Fay

current works in progress

My current work emphasizes the complex interrelations of the ecosystem, and is informed by self-similar patterns found within and throughout it. Underlying the diversity and complexity of ecology is structure that reflects the operation of fundamental physical processes. In accordance with the theories of mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot, patterns of structure that are self-similar can be observed over a wide range of dimensions. This compelling ordering system informs both the process and content of my work. Drawings are constructed through a system of mark making to create imagery that intentionally oscillates between representational and abstract — in which the smallest cellular structure reflects substantial celestial formations.

In my most recent pieces, media is employed through a range of applications to form dendritic and circular marks. Placements of marks break up the fixed viewpoint within the picture plane with the intent to represent a metaphysical space.

Floating Series

Floating Worlds series. This project continues my interest in the macrocosm and microcosm schema of ecological systems. Underlying the diversity and complexity of ecology is structure that reflects the operation of fundamental physical and biological processes ' patterns of structure that are self'similar can be observed over a wide range of scales. As a visual artist engaged with science and the physical world, these emergent patterns are particularly compelling and have become a major concentration in my work. This new body of work shifts my focus from the biotic to the abiotic. I am interested in the repeating movements and structures of abiotic systems such as air, water, rain, and clouds. Water, for example, reveals similar patterns of movement through both cloud formation in the atmosphere, and undercurrents in a stream. These patterns repeat on both massive and minute scales. Art and science coincide in this work, as my intent is to create images that oscillate between the objective and the imaginary. I am interested in the visual analogies set up when the subject is detached from definite scale, context, colour and paradigm. For example: imagery suggesting water molecules takes the shape of clouds. The clouds can, at once, also be read as landscape, or as microscopic particles. These 'floating worlds' function as a reflection of the interconnection of ecological systems.

Systems series

This series produced from 2010 to 2012 examined structural parallels between biotic systems. Specifically this work examined the structure of systems in both human and plant form: circulatory, reproductive / propagative, vascular. I used scientific diagrams and microscopic imagery from both plant and human studies to direct the work. My intent was not a strict mimeses of the scientific illustrations or images. I am interested in the visual analogies that take place when this imagery is removed from the original scale, paradigm and context. By rendering all subject matter on a similar scale and removing associative size, context, and colour, I aim to focus on the visual and functional similarities in these sustaining underpinnings of life. The visceral quality of paint and gestural application is employed as a means of detaching the subject matter from the strictly empirical information of the scientific illustrations towards more subjective information. I am interested in the visual ambiguity of the forms, in that they can be read as either from plant or animal, or either internal or peripheral elements. For example: either seedpods or blood cells. Ultimately my intent, through the use of these visual analogies, is to underline the fundamental interconnections of all life systems.

In-Spiral project

In-spiral was an investigation into phenomenology and the lived bodily experience. A hand toy and the computer were utilized to produce drawings of hypocycloids. The walls are filled with hundreds of hypocycloids I and vistors drew using the hand toy. The curved form of a spiral holds aesthetic appeal. It intrigues us, as it is associated with the natural world and the cosmos -microcosms to macrocosms ' daisies to planetary trajectories. It is in essence poetic geometry. This hand tool employs the principles of math and geometry using two circles of different radiuses to generate a hypocycloid (the curve produced by a fixed point on the circumference of a small circle of radius rolling around the inside of a large circle of radius). With the principles of math and geometry comes an aspiration for perfection. Math has always held for us the promise of stasis, stability and predictability. The construction of a spiral from a mathematical formula should be perfect. The spiral is as much a geometrical figure as the square, with its curves as measurable as a straight line. This perfection is achievable on the computer program. The formation of the spiral graph or hypocycloid is exactingly determined by the radius of the circles, the points in the circle and the number of rotations. However inside my experiment of the drawn spiral this strict aesthetic collapses and the spiral shows the stigma of the human hand. The purity of the form gives way to the 'hand' of the producer; it is lost to chance and our limitations of dexterity. The computer, of course, generates the geometry exactly. However, it is the somewhat unpredictable and changeable nature of the hand drawn spiral that allows us to engage in it repeatedly, and more personally. Hour after hour of spiral formation each wobble and skid reduces the purity of the geometry even further, but it is the experience of the physicality of the process that allows a full engagement.

Pod/Path + Cell series

The cell series produced from 2007 to 2010, was engaged with the botanic and the body. By using abstract imagery of cell structures, plant and body forms, and by employing the visceral characteristics of paint this work presents analogies between plant and human life systems and recognizes the close associations within these systems. (examples first 5 images)

The Pod/Path body of work was produced from 2005 to 2008. Gestural marks/shapes appear in the grounds of the picture plane ' or landscape. I use these marks as evocations of path and/or pod. Path: mapping, waterways, migration ways, pathways, movement, individual/communal /historical networks. Pod: seeds, cells, body, groupings, covering, internal, genetic networks.

I approached building each work as revealing animal ancestral generational knowledge and genetic adaptations of plants in the landscape. The marks in the paint grounds are built up, buried and exposed to create a materially and visually rich surface. By focusing on layering paint with texture and colour, and not creating the illusion of recessive space I aim to address depth of information in the natural world that is becoming ever more vulnerable to human exploitation.

These two series overlapped in duration, one informing the other.

Plains series

This body of work examined the idea of place. Traditional landscape painting relies on the illusion of receding space and positions the viewer outside the picture plane as surveyor, suggesting governance. By focusing on layering paint with texture and colour, and not renouncing the picture plane, I aim to recognize a knowledge that does not favor imitation of the world by illusionist devices such as planimetrc perspective. I am interested in the experience of place ' how we understand place through sensory properties and the mind. This understanding of place favors comprehension through consciousness and bodily experience; what the French phemenologist Merleau-Ponty described as 'the lived perspective'. This work is not concerned with depicting a certain place or locality in time but looks to address the experience or sense of place through the process and language of painting.

For further reading on this work the exhibition essay is available in Reviews under Critical Essays.

Elemental Project

This installation focused on the elements as the foundation of all natural processes. I was also interested in the fact that the natural elements are a fundamental part of human story telling, spirituality and mythology. The installation included four artist books one corresponding to each of the natural elements: Air Book, Earth Book, Fire Book, Water Book. Time as related to the history of the land/environment was also a component of the work. The wall pieces were made by a process of repeatedly reproducing the same photographs - anding "generations" of change and adaption to the reproduced images. Each artist book is unique, containing pages of original print work, mixed media work, paintings and drawings. The artist books, of course, are a temporal experince for the viewer, as each page is revealed sequentially, layering on image over the next as the pages are turned.

Holly Fay

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