PROBLEMS OF KNOWING (2000)
1st Quebec International Biennale, 2000.
Where, are we when we can simultaneously navigate real and projected space? This question is further complicated by the increasing presence of virtual reality in contemporary life that simultaneously connects us in real time to almost anywhere in and near our world.
In PROBLEMS OF KNOWING contemplation is a point of entry. Coming into the gallery space a series of chairs and tables gradually emerge out of the wall from a two dimensional representation to a three dimensional presence occupying real space as three dimensional objects. They are made in such a way that from the entrance it is difficult to differentiate between their two and three dimensional representations. It is only by moving beyond the point of entry that this experience of knowing takes place.
The chairs and desks are set up in a row one behind the other as in a classroom facing an apparent text on a blackboard. This text is a shortened version of the dictionary definition of melancholia. But instead of being written in two dimensions on a blackboard it has been constructed as letter-forms in three dimensions. To identify these letters one is invited to peer into the hollow end of the letterforms and identify each letter by its interior configuration, in this way letter by letter one can decipher the text.
This work addresses the fundamental problems of how we know the world as we move from two to three dimensions and back again.
MELANCHOLIA (the text work)
I have become increasingly curious as to how consciousness in the act of experience can project into pictorial space and simultaneously navigate projected and physical space as a means of achieving homeostasis. Here, images of different modalities can be combined to produce new and unexpected pictures of situations that have not yet happened, the world of imaginary creation, the world of planning, the world of formulation of scenarios and even prediction of outcomes.
Melancholia references Dürer’s famous engraving of the despondent seated angel surrounded by an array of different devices for measuring the world and its reality, devices whose very accuracy betrays the impossibility of their certainty.
The letter-form text at the front of the classroom must be read by peering into the shapes of the letters themselves, seeing them from the inside out, re-imagining the word, sounding it out, rehearsing the uncertainty of their apprehension, rehearsing in the mind the definition of melancholia.
About
Yvonne Lammerich has shown nationally and internationally since 1973. Her work is included in museums as well as corporate and private collections.
Contact
To inquire about artworks, please contact TFT Works at yvonnelammerich@gmail.com