Thank you to each of you for your willingness to participate in this interview. This exhibition, The Illusion of Being, is a captivating exhibition in the Hawn Gallery and I hope that many more visitors at the university and in the arts community take advantage of seeing it before it closes on May 17th. It has been phenomenal to have this installation in the Hawn Gallery at Hamon.
To begin, each body of work by the three of you has a very strong affiliation with the concept of illusion. Could you discuss how this concept, whether through its creation in photography or other design, served as a lodestar in the development of your work?
Lynné: My work in The Illusion of Being is a culmination of 10 years of research and exploration. It is hard to say how this work will influence the art I make next, but I can definitely see how I got to this point. I have been working with origami and photography for quite some time now. I am interested in how the combination of the two mediums transforms both the image and the form into something new. With the work in The Illusion of Being, I added another layer with the introduction of the mirror. I like how the mirror creates a horizon into another dimension, showing a different side and perspective to the objects. I was also interested in the fact that the viewer could see themselves in the mirror, essentially becoming part of the piece. This work not only morphs, distorts, and changes my body; but it also incorporates the body of the viewer.
When creating artworks, I am always translating my emotions and personal experiences into a physical object. What I am essentially doing is translating what it means to be human into an object. When Ross suggested the title for the show as The Illusion of Being, I thought it fit perfectly with the concepts all three of us continually make work about. It really sums up what we do. These objects are only simulations, they are not the actual experiences. However, through these objects we can approach these emotions and experiences from a different vantage point.
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