Universe (Blue and Black)

Amy Tavern

Vellum, acrylic paint

16 x 45 feet, Individual components measure 11 x 14 inches each

2016-2022

Price upon request

(Custom framed 4 panel version available, $1,000)

 I began experimenting with vellum and paint during an artist’s residency in Iceland. I was walking daily in the landscape and was inspired by its vast, otherworldly beauty. In my studio, I painted sheets of vellum black and once dry, I crushed each and then flattened them out again. I was curious to see what would happen to the painted surfaces but to my surprise and delight, the vellum sides were more interesting. They were covered in points and creases that looked like stars in the sky while also reminding me of the rocks and black sand I had been walking on. I composed the sheets into a grid that covered a wall, forming a kind of map or portal. In subsequent iterations in the years that followed, the piece increased in size and was reinterpreted in blue.

 For ADAPTATIONS: LAND, I combined the blue and black versions into one expansive piece. The painted and wrinkled sheets of vellum tower overhead and their texture seems to pulse. The regularity of the grid balances the disorder of white lines and dots. From afar, the material appears mysterious, perhaps some kind of rock or maybe dark water. The composition resembles the night sky filled with stars or moonlight reflected on the surface of a lake.

 Universe (Blue and Black) asks its viewer to pause and consider what the Universe contains. There is space itself and all the matter and energy within it, galaxies, countless stars, the planets, and their moons. Further, the Universe contains everything on Earth including every human, creature, and substance, and all the land around us. The land in the forests and along the ocean, the land under the homes we live in, the land under our feet when we walk to the bus. Universe (Blue and Black) also asks its viewer to consider their relationship to land and to reconsider how they might best care for it in the coming days. Through this reimagining and adaptation, we can be led to a greater perceptual understanding of where we are in the world, a stronger sense of self, and the realization that caring for this land is critical.