An inquiry into chance, repetition, and translation
Untitled (Eneight Eneight Vase) by Valerie Byrd, 2023, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 x 6 inches
Eneight Vase brings together works from a number of Creativity Explored’s past and present artists. An inquiry into chance, repetition and translation, the exhibition lays its gaze first and foremost on the artistic process.
The exhibited works possess a meditative scurry, a quality of hand brought about through a concentrated and iterative style of mark-making. This technique is employed in various ways by the included artists, whose uses of recursive marks chronicle their lives, name objects and experiences, and represent time and memory. The titular neologism (or a possible alternative spelling of the word “innate”) comes from CE artist Valerie Byrd, whose often swiftly-applied language within the visual embodies the live and combinatory spirit of this exhibition.
The iterative nature of the included works is echoed in the design of the exhibition itself. Eneight Vase began with a core group of 22 artworks selected by teaching artist Laura Figa, who, alongside her colleagues, worked with select studio artists to develop new pieces in response to the first group of artworks. All studio artists at CE were then invited to guide the installation of the exhibition, translating these works one final time to the physical space of our gallery — a truly participatory experiment in the tune of reprise and chance.
Untitled by James Miles, 2019, marker on paper, 6 3/4 x 21 inches
“I responded intuitively...it [was] like going from the back [of an artwork] to the front. If you see something from the back, you see the shape of it; you don’t actually see all of it. [Camille’s work] was really clean, and I wanted to dirty it up…it was fun.”
The original set of 22 artworks features works by Julien Borromeo, Valerie Byrd, Jose Campos, Daniel Green, Donald Gruneisen, Camille Holvoet, Daniel Li, John Patrick McKenzie, James Miles, Lien Nguyen, James Nielsen, Thomas Pringle, Marilyn Wong, and Doris Yen. The list of artists responding to the pieces by this original set continues to expand, and includes Laron Bickerstaff, Ada Chow, Kevin Cordoba, Peter DeLira, Camille Holvoet, Jesus Huezo, Lien Nguyen, Roland Record, and Gerald Wiggins.