Cheryl Walker» Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Fluid forms excite me and the moving body energizes me. At the center of my studio practice, drawing takes me to magical, meditative spaces and, it provides a path to large-scale painting, interactive installation, and collaborative performance.

My participation in the performance “Philosophical Toys: The Docent,” presented at REDCAT in July 2004 and MOCA in January 2004, had a profound effect on my art-making process. Thirty years of life drawing workshops prepared me for the live drawing collaboration, during a two-year development and rehearsal process, with dancer Deborah Cohen and composer John Crigler. In this multimedia event, the audience watched me create a drawing, in response to Deborah’s movement and John’s original music on acoustic guitar, projected on a scrim across the entire width of the stage. Together we exposed the space of the ephemeral and the inner workings of the creative process.

From this point forward, back in the studio, I became more aware of the movement of my own body, which resulted in large-scale paintings on paper that incorporate my reach, while meditative movement has become the subject of more intimate works on paper. Inspired by the landscape of natural forms, my work is the result of an improvisatory process exploring growth, renewal, and transformation. Automatic drawing provides a point of entry into a metaphoric world of intuitive, invented, and imagined imagery that reflects upon the relationship of the visible exterior landscape of natural forms to the invisible internal landscape of the body.

In a second component of these performances – my painting literally left the wall and entered center stage. As the painting became a sculptural object, it was physically transformed into an interactive field of play. Projected light through clear Plexiglas created an arena of light and shadow for me to playfully adjust the painting by moving and removing vinyl shapes. Transparent materials in a transparent process, together with light and movement, therefore inspired several water-themed vinyl installations. With the installation of Aquarium in 2006 at the Ontario Airport, passersby and the preparators were so engaged in the process; the evolution of an interactive experience was revealed.

At the Brand Library in Glendale in 2008, I collaborated with dancers Liz Curtis and Martha Carrascosa to animate the gallery at the opening reception. By penetrating the space of Waterfall IV and moving between the waterfall and Windows on the World, the dancers interacted with the artwork by adhering vinyl shapes to the windows and by inviting viewers to participate.

Collaboration with dancers Liz and Martha and viewer participation continued at my solo exhibition Immersion in late 2008 at the new Artspace at 7+Fig in downtown Los Angeles. With a budget of $10,000 from Brookfield Properties and LA Cultural Affairs Department, and a three month residency in a 5,000 square foot space, I created a site-specific wall painting with overhead projections, incorporated video projections from Brand Library window details, created a series of 9’ Waterfalls V-X, expanded Windows on the World II to 52’ and, developed a series of three performances with the addition of flutist Susan Rawcliffe and percussionist Brad Dutz.

During the course of the Immersion exhibition, viewers were encouraged to add, move, and rearrange the vinyl forms on Windows on the World II, to create an evolving image where artificial plastic shapes transformed the view of the natural environment seen outside through the windows. These positive acts of transformation increase awareness about our interaction with nature and our interaction with one another, as well as encourage dialog about the increasing collisions and contradictions between the artificial landscape and the natural world.

My work facilitates a place to meditate on the personal, biological, environmental and formal relationships between landscape and the body while reflecting upon an environment where we have an opportunity to re-generate, re-invent, and re-strategize for the future. It is the material result of an ephemeral exploration of the connections between all life forms.

Inspired by the landscape of natural forms, my work is the result of an improvisatory process of interaction with a site or situation. Installations are the material result of an ephemeral exploration of the connections between all life forms. Individual oil pastel brushstrokes on vinyl, are adhered by static electricity, like colorforms, on layers of transparent translucent vinyl. All elements are removable, repositionable, and reusable to facilitate interaction.

Centered in drawing and painting, my studio practice has led me to pursue a variety of activities such as collaborative performance, which have had a profound effect on my process of art-making. Foregrounded in the tradition of John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, my most successful performance to date was “Philosophical Toys: The Docent” presented at REDCAT in July 2004 and MOCA in January 2004. In this multimedia event, John Crigler played original music on acoustic guitar and Deborah Cohen danced. The audience watched me create a drawing, related to Deborah’s movement and John’s music, projected on a scrim across the entire width of the stage. Together we exposed the space of the ephemeral and the inner workings of the creative process.

In a second component of these performances – my painting literally left the wall and entered center stage. As the painting became a sculptural object, it was physically transformed into an interactive field of play. Projected light through a 10’ x 4’ sheet of clear Plexiglas created an arena of light and shadow for me to playfully adjust and create my own painting by moving and removing the circular red and black oil pastel shapes. Like John Cage I believe that this “purposeless play” is also “an affirmation of life.” If we “simply to wake up to the very life we’re living,” ¹ and think playfully and creatively, by being in the present moment, we can achieve greatness in the world.

In 2005 and 2006, the individual installations “Waterfall” and “Aquarium” directly resulted from the clear Plexiglas painting in the performance. Both installations were created on site, in response to the specific environment. I reused the same materials, while adding and subtracting color and brushstrokes specific to each installation. The pieces stay in place for a matter of months and are never installed the same way twice. Using similar elements of vinyl and individual oil pastel shapes, I overlapped multiple lengths of translucent, blue, green, and yellow vinyl with violet, blue, green, silver and white oil pastel marks to create the illusion of water. Inspired by the way water flows and drips while creating these various shapes, I drew individual oil pastel marks directly on the vinyl. Then I cut out hundreds of these elements, which are reattached to the vinyl like colorforms, stuck on only by static electricity. This process not only makes the work performative, it becomes interactive as well. As an experiment at the end of the exhibition, I performed and interacted with “Waterfall” at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro with only my photographer Gene Ogami as the audience. In future installations I hope to include the audience as participants in the work.

Through my interaction with this plastic vinyl material, I have become increasing aware of the collisions and contradictions between the artificial landscape and the natural world. Plastic is ironically archival, having a life span of 500 years or more. These installations are reflective of the earth where we have the opportunity to re-generate, re-invent, and re-strategize for the future. To inspire a love of nature, the environmentalist Rachel Carson asked: “What if I knew I would never see it again?”² In turn I ask: “If we don’t take responsibility for our natural resources, is this artificial reality all that will remain?”

¹ John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Conn., 1961

²Rachel Carson, A Sense of Wonder, The Nature Company, Berkeley, CA, 1956