PAULINE SHAW
Not a Number
April 27 - June 2, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 27, 1-6pm
NaN, Not a Number, refers to an undefined value generated by 0 divided by 0 or the square root of a negative. Far from being errors, these “floating-point numbers” are used to express values that can shift between vastly different magnitudes—from the space between galaxies to the space between protons in an atom. Their large dynamic range is a fitting access point for Shaw’s latest body of work, a suite of felts and intricate wire laces that mine the aesthetics of man-made instruments of control— the rings of a gyroscope measuring the drift of a universe, the cellular structure of a lung held under a microscope, Rorschach tests that we use to parse our own elusive psychology, or the ornamentation of cast iron gates engineered to repel intruders. Located in the nexus of these forms, Shaw’s poetic vernacular is equally at home in the cosmos as it is in the individual fibers of felt.
The works in Not a Number are at once intimately welcoming in their materiality and resistant to the impulse to be categorized neatly. Like a NaN output, Shaw’s focus floats through the cosmos at the same time that it picks apart the most finite of cellular building blocks. Shaw’s work attempts to capture forces beyond our control.
Download Full Press Release
Download Full Press Release (Spanish)
SELECTED WORKS
'Untitled', 2023-2024 Felted raw and dyed wool, steel rod, hardware 214 x 205 cm (84 x 80 ¾ in.)
'Deep Blue', 2023-2024 Felted raw and dyed wool, chalk, steel rod, hardware 210 x 297 cm (82 ½ x 117 in.)
'Mood Eternal', 2023-2024 Felted raw and dyed wool, copper wire, semi-precious gems, stones, in artist’s chosen frame 210 x 87 cm (82 ½ x 34 ¼ in.) Frame: 216 x 96 cm (85 x 37 ¾ in.)
'Untitled', 2023-2024 Felted dyed wool, in artist’s chosen frame 193 x 75 cm (76 x 29 ½ in.) Frame: 203 x 80 cm (80 x 31 ½ in.)
'Dark Energy', 2023-2024 Felted dyed wool, in artist’s chosen frame 110 x 47 cm (43 ¼ x 18 ½ in.) Frame: 112 x 49 cm (44 x 19 ¼ in.)
'Protection', 2024 Copper wire, stainless steel rings, malachite, in artist’s frame 31 x 23 cm (12 ¼ x 9 in.)
The metal-grating that guards the windows throughout the neighborhood Santa Maria la Ribera is channeled in Protection. The protective spiral pattern is culled down into something precious, but within its wooden frame the delicate weave also hints at the appearance of a motherboard, with each taut string mimicking the path of circuitry. In Shaw’s hand, the visual language of decoration and the utilitarian appearance of technology begin to rhyme.
The axis, gimbal, and frame of a gyroscope tangle over 3 Rings’ writhing textile ground. Used to measure velocity and direction through space, the instrument’s three axiomatic rings are freed from their mechanical context and let to echo the immense force that passes through them. The felted pattern beneath flickers between the scale of a fingerprint or woodgrain, offering the impression of phenomena both infinite and infinitesimal.
The hanging installation of Not a Number invites the viewer into an organic synthesis of textile and architecture. Like stained-glass windows, the piece’s translucent surfaces reveal their complex layers as light passes through them. Lilac veins appear from behind expressive swathes of indigo and crimson fiber. Something like the cells of a lung under a microscope, or the amorphous forms on a Rorschach test, the lines slither with strands of white in skewed symmetry. Underneath the richly textured surface, the network pulses with the unseen energy of a subterranean ecosystem. Elsewhere, wandering yellow lines and gently drawn verticals are illuminated in between large sections of blue and black. Here, the hand of the artist subtly reveals itself to be at the helm of the show’s monumental scope.
Mood Eternal presents the gyroscope laid flat. Here, the ovals harken to something more like a schematic: The aerial borders of a map, or the two dimensional appearance of representational paintings before the advent of linear perspective. The rings of the symmetrical composition vibrate outwards towards heartshaped wire-work with stone adornments, bringing to mind handcrafted dreamcatchers. Unencumbered by the weight of multidimensionality, a sense of homespun spirituality emerges.
INSTALLATION VIEWS
