Fold the world in half at your eye by Lindsey Clark-Ryan is the result of four weeks Exploration Residency among the ´acePIRAR Artist-in-Residence International Program.

Fold the world in half at your eye by Lindsey Clark-Ryan…

This work uses the horizon as a starting point to explore the relationship between printmaking, paper, and how we conceive of space. The horizon can be, among many other things, an easy shorthand for landscape, a charged moment of awareness during navigation, the contrast of two planes trying to coexist in our vision. I’m interested in the way my vision can become image-oriented or picture-oriented relative to the equipment and processes I have available to mediate it, e.g. phone cameras or printing presses.

The shapes present throughout the prints in this installation are drawn from las tipas growing throughout Buenos Aires. The forms are defined by the edges of tall canopies exhibiting crown shyness, the gaps where the upper branches hesitate to touch. It’s evocative, partly due to the tension at the edge that seems to belie the slow, overlapping growth of the trees. As a group, these contours also imply river deltas or geographical borders, so the point of view might be looking up, down, or across.

In this installation I focused on how the printmaking process—through layering, folds, and display relationships—can express both the tautness and delicacy of experience and, eventually, communication. I am always interested in the behavior of paper and its relationship to pressure, atmosphere, or gravity. Further, working with stencil and monotype on folded paper allowed for adaptation and flexibility, but required continuous diagramming and calculation that a fixed matrix would not. In this way, the tenuousness and constant reorientation was embodied in the process.