Unfolding


Unfolding

Artist: Anna Carlson

Title: Unfolding

Attribution: Unfolding

Year: 2020

Materials: silk, indigo, pigment

Dimensions: 48"w x 90"h x 16"d

Image Statement: This piece, “Unfolding” takes the form of Heraclean bronze tablets, and documents the conversation in terms of the process of memory. The dark end suggests the memory as distant and elusive. As the conversation unfolds, and is recorded, transcribed into text, and then printed onto silk, the color gets lighter and lighter, suggesting illumination and clarity. The blue pieces you see here in the gallery are dyed with natural indigo. Indigo is a plant material, and when the vat is tended properly, will give deep colors on and on. The color blue is that of distance, as mountains from far away, and so the color shows that these are memories. You may have noticed that many of the pieces are in this tall narrow form at. In 2019, I visited the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy and saw a Heraclean bronze tablet, with Greek writing on one side, and Latin on the other. The text was some sort of records, and I could make out a few of the Latin words, yet the Greek lettering appeared as a beautiful pattern of lines and spaces.