SCREENPLAY

Permanent Collection, 2012

SF MOMA

Screenplay is conceived of as a ‘play’ on one’s visual perception.  This twenty-one foot long screen wall is constructed of forty-five thousand linear feet of rope strung through a series of lightweight steel frames.  The wall is designed with the intention of provoking a sense of curiosity by slowly revealing its form and complexity through physical and visual engagement with the work.  The wall is made from a repetitious steel framework with rope infill that varies over the length of the wall in three dimensions, forming a thickened undulating screen made up of dense line-work.   In its orthographic, or ‘straight on’ view, the wall forms a meticulously organized series of patterns easily recognized by the viewer.  As the viewer moves around the wall, its three-dimensional qualities reveal a more complex system of deep sectional cavities, twisting surfaces, and material densities.  The experience is meant to build on an ‘on again/off again’ system of pattern legibility, using optical effects as a means of provoking engagement in the work.