SYLVIA RAMACHANDRAN SKEEN

Being an artist, or even making space for art in our lives, means agreeing to live with heightened awareness—of the monumental things we shut out because they seem too distant or overwhelming, and of the small ones we overlook because they are too close. Loosely based on spoon forms, these pieces are about the need to feed, metaphorically speaking. How do we attempt the task of delivering nourishment to ourselves and to others, of reaching beyond our shortcomings to address needs of such variety? 

 

Inadequacy is inherent in the concept of tools. We make them to extend our finite ability, and often they fall short.  Writes engineer Henry Petroski, “Every artifact is somewhat wanting in its function, and this is what drives its evolution…Form follows failure,” not function. We improvise new solutions from available fragments, not only in the making of tools, but in the making of ourselves. I think of my lines as fossilized records of those gestures—often ridiculous, but sincere.