Spotlight on Intersection@5: Jeanne Silverthorne

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

Silverthorne_Dandelion Clock

Jeanne Silverthorne, Dandelion Clock, 2012. Platinum silicon rubber, phosphorescent pigment on wire, 33 x 29 x 16 in. The Hereward Lester Cooke Memorial Fund, 2014. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Dandelion Clock is a contemporary vanitas, a reminder of transience and mortality. It is infected by signs of morbid excess (the giant size), decay (the faded or “blown” flower), and toxicity (it glows in the dark). Collapsing under the weight of history and new technologies, traditional studio practice is an excavation of the past, offering an archeology of loss. Flirting with the genre of the floral painting, Dandelion Clock embraces the baroque exuberance and post-modern melancholy of the nearly extinct.

Jeanne Silverthorne

Spotlight on Intersections@5: Tayo Heuser

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.
Heuser_Untitled

Tayo Heuser, Untitled, 2010. Woodcut, 53 x 38 in. Gift of the artist, 2011. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

My response to The Rothko Room, particularly to his painting Ochre and Red on Red, painted in 1954:

Color, lightness, fullness, sadness, spirituality, silence, movement, an opening towards a distant place. I wanted to keep still, sit down, look and listen for a very long time. Tears. It was like nothing else. The room has perfect lighting and proportions. The paintings breathed. The plain bench was good. This woodcut and sculptural drawing (among several others created in various sizes) is the result of my response to The Rothko Room.

Tayo Heuser

Spotlight on Intersections@5: Lee Boroson

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

Boroson_Fixed Haze

Lee Boroson, Fixed Haze, 2014. 32” diameter, acrylic, acetate, polypropylene, aluminum, stainless steel.

Fixed Haze is a sculpture inspired by the formlessness of fog or mist. In studying this material and perceptual phenomenon I looked for a way of building a modular sculpture that could be both solid and ethereal simultaneously. As one moves around the work, the clear plastic materials manipulate light in a way that allows the sculpture to react to changing conditions and viewpoints.

Lee Boroson