The Lost Circus - Statement and Installation

Installation, The Local, New York, NY - October 2021

 

The Lost Circus - Transformations is a body of work consisting of forty graphite figurative drawings, complex geometrical studies, and manipulated digital prints. The original drawings were transformed in different ways, some dramatically enlarged, and others deconstructed into sequential images to reveal their underlying geometry and movement.

 

Installed all together in a gallery, these works respond to each other in a visual conversation about my process and its meaning. 

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The imagery engages with history and emotional aspects of contemporary life. Set in some indefinite past, itinerant entertainers advance sporadically from place to place, in response to the unpredictable demands for their performances and other contingencies. Themes of exile, marginality, and alienation emerge as boundaries dissolve, animals coexist with humans and spirits, and the wanderers advance towards their uncertain future - much as we sometimes do today.

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This series was inspired by art historical sources such as the late 18th century, proto-cinematic work of Domenico Tiepolo, specifically his “Punchinello Drawings” and “Flight Into Egypt”.  Literary sources include Theophile Gautier’s “Le Capitaine Fracasse.”