psychart

For a good part of 5 years in college I spent countless hours attempting to understand the psychology of separation, of stereotypes and discrimination in societies and individuals. There are volumes of these studies out there.

And yet one visit to the local art gallery and these latent biases are similarly confronted. Trading complex social experiments for abstract creativity and images. My own assumptions of order and structure and color and form challenged with the utmost subtlety.


Images to the right of a local exhibit from the wonderful Real Art Ways...

Heather Hart
Notations of a Hybrid, 2008
Notations of a Hybrid explores context, power, literature, and intention in regards to identity development. Hart invited people to give her titles of two books that they have found most helpful in defining their identity. The selection could be based upon the book's title, content, contrast or collaboration.

Hart then obtained these books and encased them in yarn, thereby creating a portrait of each participant. Each object consists of two books that are cozied together, rendering them inaccessible. While the yarn protects these books, it also conceals and restricts their content. This collection of books becomes unusable in their utilitarian sense and become decorative evidence of an obsessive reclamation process - the yarn taking control.