MICHELLE FORSYTH



FIELD WORK, ZAUM PROJECTS, LISBON, PORTUGAL, 2008

November 7 - December 4, 2008
Solo exhibition, Field Work, Zaum Projects Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal.
[ Zaum Projects Contemporary Art ]

Zaum Projects is pleased to announce the opening of Field Work, an exhibition of recent work by Michelle Forsyth. In Field Work, Forsyth presents us with work from two interrelated bodies of her work: The One Hundred Drawings Project, a series of gouache and watercolor paintings; and Ostinatos, a series of works made from cut-paper. Some recent text-based pieces will also be included.

Forsyth is known for translating, often horrific, images of spectacle into time-consuming, hand-finishing processes to address human vulnerability and grief. In her recent work she takes her process a step further by travelling to the places pictured in historical news photographs of disaster. During each first-hand visit, Forsyth creates a new set of images from which to work. Instead of picturing these places from typical vantage points, she instead seeks out contadictions to the way places are generally memorialized.  When seen up close, thousands of tiny, brightly colored brush marks, hole-punches, cutout circles, glitter and hand-stitched beads dominate the surfaces of Forsyth‘s works on paper; viewed from afar the lavishly packed surfaces of sinuous marks and lacey patterns form the images taken during her visits.