here.we.are.

I’ve been neglecting my new homegirl….planning to...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:52:25 -0400

I’ve been neglecting my new homegirl….planning to finish her soon. #drawing #printmaking #stamp #painting #textile #installation photo: @xlf510

dynamic duo. @djafrica81 (at Papillion Institute of Art)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:27:20 -0400

dynamic duo. @djafrica81 (at Papillion Institute of Art)

Come. (at Papillion Institute of Art)

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:20:44 -0400

Come. (at Papillion Institute of Art)

http://cinemagr.am/show/147674443

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:08:13 -0400

http://cinemagr.am/show/147674443:

(Taken with http://cinemagr.am)

it was written. #drawing #troy (Taken with Cinemagram)

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:01:53 -0400

it was written. #drawing #troy (Taken with Cinemagram)

sign. (Taken with Cinemagram)

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:47:31 -0400

sign. (Taken with Cinemagram)

pia-artezine: Kenturah is back from Vietnam and brought a tan...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:30:48 -0400

pia-artezine:

Kenturah is back from Vietnam and brought a tan with her!!! Come celebrate her successful solo exhibition at the closing party Sunday 4/28 starting at 4pm #art #sonder #papillioninstituteofart #dtla #losangeles #kenturah #drawings #installation (at Papillion Institute of Art)

pia-artezine: Kenturah is back from Vietnam and brought a tan...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:54:06 -0400

pia-artezine:

Kenturah is back from Vietnam and brought a tan with her!!! Come celebrate her successful solo exhibition at the closing party Sunday 4/28 starting at 4pm #art #sonder #papillioninstituteofart #dtla #losangeles #kenturah #drawings #installation (at Papillion Institute of Art)

pia-artezine: One of the light boxes in #sonder 3 are on...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:53:36 -0400

pia-artezine:

One of the light boxes in #sonder 3 are on display in the gallery but there are 4 in the series. #art #installation #sculpture #drawings #stampdrawings #papillioninstituteofart #kenturah #dtla #losangeles #light #lightbox (at Papillion Institute of Art)

momentsofsonder: Regarding writing and stamping: Employing the...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:48:26 -0400

momentsofsonder:

Regarding writing and stamping:

Employing the use of the written word to make drawings came about during my detour away from painting, as a way to investigate the mechanics of construction our personal and collective identities. I stripped my work of color and gesture and instead began to construct works on paper by layering hand-written text. I recognized that writing a letter is making a kind of mark and could be done strategically to render an image. The process of writing a text in repetition to compose the portrait became a metaphor for the way that we acquire and inhabit language. It also extended the work into the realm of a performative act, in which the process of making it is as important as the finished piece. I see the drawings as a series of conversions where the subject has first been rendered with light through the photographic process, then carefully converted to text as I filter the photographic information through my eyes and hand.

My first experimentations were composed with hand-written text, some cursive some hand-printed. Following these early text drawings came further exploration using rubber stamp letters. In the way that the hand-written works engage with the history of penmanship and an individualized method of mark-making, the stamp drawings connect with industry, printmaking and a broader dissemination of information through information technology.

Sonder ends April 28th, at Papillion Institute of Art. Go to http://papillionart.org/ for more info.

momentsofsonder: Regarding space, time and performative...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:48:06 -0400

silhouettes of the participants in the drawing are visible through the layers.

silhouette of a participant in the drawing are visible through the layers.

momentsofsonder:

Regarding space, time and performative acts:

The Sonder exhibition represents the synthesis of my pursuits to work more sculpturally and engage time and space in the work. I have embraced the idea of making these text portraits as performative acts. The process of writing a text in repetition over time is a metaphor for the ways that we accumulate information. A pivotal moment that prompted a deeper examination of this idea was during the process of creating my first large-scale drawing installation in 2011. After rendering the portrait with a hand-written text, I destroyed the drawing at the close of the exhibition in front of an audience. This experienced directed me toward making another large scale work that physically engaged an audience in the making/completion of a drawing.

Sonder became a work that not only engaged the audience, but transitioned people into being participants that become a part of the work. The large installation is composed of three layers of translucent textiles, suspended from the ceiling, several feet apart from one another. The transparency of the material allows the viewer to see through parts of the first panel, into the second, while the distance between them allows the viewer to traverse inside the installation. The installation is in a constant state of flux as people move about the space and in between the panels. It is also designed to iterate the very definition of the word sonder and its emphasis on noticing strangers.

Sonder ends April 28th, at Papillion Institute of Art. Go to http://papillionart.org/ for more info.

momentsofsonder: Regarding binary code: Working with the...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:47:46 -0400

momentsofsonder:

Regarding binary code:

Working with the written language, I’ve become increasingly engaged with the history of writing. Understanding that the advent of written information arrived as the capacity of the human memory deteriorated situates my portraits as a kind of record.

Over a year ago I began thinking about the binary number system and how I might make a drawing using a code. I had an interest in deconstructing text into the most reduced expression as possible. As the idea for Sonder developed into a multi-layered artwork it became important to explore the possibility of working with different kinds of information across the three panels. As a result, the second panel of the installation is composed by converting the definition of the word sonder into binary code and stamping that onto the textile. The tapestry of binary number elicits a reading that is not comprehended in a literal sense; rather, it presents itself as a coded matrix that references the evolution of an ancient mathematical concept into its modern application in computer technology.

Sonder ends April 28th, at Papillion Institute of Art. Go to http://papillionart.org/ for more info.

momentsofsonder: Regarding the QR code: After deciding to draw...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:47:28 -0400

participants scanning the QR code that makes up the drawing

the QR code panel

momentsofsonder:

Regarding the QR code:

After deciding to draw the second panel with binary code, I knew that a third panel should be an extension of the first two panels that pushed the content of the work into another form to convey information. After converting the original text of the first panel to binary code on the second panel, it made sense to complete the piece by making a final conversion for a third panel. I chose to use a Quick Response code, a matrix barcode, because it technologically relies on the binary system to pass information through cyberspace. QR codes can be scanned by someone’s mobile devices and them to a website. So, I set up a website whose purpose would be to show documentation about the creation of the Sonder exhibit. I then generated a QR code for the URL of the website and ordered a rubber stamp customized with the code. As a result I was able to draw the last panel with a stamp that engages technology in a self-reflexive look at the content of the work, by linking the viewer to this microsite with ongoing documentation about the project (momentsofsonder.tumblr.com).

Sonder ends April 28th, at Papillion Institute of Art. Go to http://papillionart.org/ for more info.

@djafrica81 brought former NBA player, art collector, education...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:24:28 -0400

@djafrica81 brought former NBA player, art collector, education activist, family man, Elliot Perry by my studio yesterday!…great conversation about art and life! #art #collector #education #memphis #GrizzliesvsClippers #goClippers

Laughs with Richard Serra! #sculptor #drawing #artists...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:29:07 -0400

Laughs with Richard Serra! #sculptor #drawing #artists #latergram #gagosian

Artist expertly carves wood to make personalized stamps…of...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:05:20 -0400

Artist expertly carves wood to make personalized stamps…of course, I had to get some! #woodcut #stamps #print #hanoi #vietnam (at Old Quarter, Hanoi)

Jane and I found a great seamstress and her beautiful blankets...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:54:00 -0400

Jane and I found a great seamstress and her beautiful blankets in Sa Pa. #sapa #vietnam

mid-hike. #nofilter #sapa #vietnam #village

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:11:47 -0400

mid-hike. #nofilter #sapa #vietnam #village

Zoomed by some street art this afternoon. #streetart #graffiti...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:23:37 -0400

Zoomed by some street art this afternoon. #streetart #graffiti #vietnam (at Phan Thiết)

I can’t decide if I look cool or not. I need a few more...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:33:29 -0400

I can’t decide if I look cool or not. I need a few more skateboard lessons from @sugarush1991 #vietnam #saigon #vacation #skateboarding (at Gia Dinh Park)