Smithson's paradigm | 1992-93
This work was made between 1992-1993 and was first exhibited at the Blum Helman Warehouse Gallery in 1993. The work is composed of six aluminum-sided troughs into which paint was poured. Each of the four sides of the container had a small transparent plexi-glass window. For six months I poured different colors of acrylic paint into the container which dried in layers. In the end the trough was filled and a final layer of paint was applied which was either black or white. From above, the paintings rested horizontal to the floor on black wooden blocks, the paintings appeared black or white but from the sides the paintings history of how it was made was expressed. By looking in each side window a different history was told because when the paintings were made the paint was unevenly distributed and thus the thickness of the layers and even the colors of the layers were different from the perspective of each side.
This work was made between 1992-1993 and was first exhibited at the Blum Helman Warehouse Gallery in 1993. The work is composed of six aluminum-sided troughs into which paint was poured. Each of the four sides of the container had a small transparent plexi-glass window. For six months I poured different colors of acrylic paint into the container which dried in layers. In the end the trough was filled and a final layer of paint was applied which was either black or white. From above, the paintings rested horizontal to the floor on black wooden blocks, the paintings appeared black or white but from the sides the paintings history of how it was made was expressed. By looking in each side window a different history was told because when the paintings were made the paint was unevenly distributed and thus the thickness of the layers and even the colors of the layers were different from the perspective of each side.
