6. Fulton Street

Alison Owen and Lisa Perez
Site-specific installation

About the Artists

Alison Owen

Each of my installations is created on site over the course of several days in direct response to the physical and emotional characteristics of the architecture. Working with simple materials – thread, thumbtacks, paper, paint, balsawood – I construct installations that subtly alter the space. The resulting works draw upon my impulse to investigate and make sense of my surroundings. I consider my work to be drawing-based, but rather than working in two-dimensions with pencil on paper, I draw in three dimensions with materials both tangible (cut paper, strips of wood, paint) and ethereal (light and shadow). Like drawing, the work results in a series of marks upon the space that reveal the process of intense observation, interpretation and recording. Every detail of the space is explored and carefully considered; the way the electrical conduit doesn’t run quite parallel to the baseboard but rather diverges at a slight upward angle, the manner in which light slides across the surface of a wall, the odd way in which two pieces of drywall meet leaving a raised horizontal ridge on the wall. I draw attention to the peripheral – those aspects of the space that are normally overlooked. A crack in the wall or a conduit becomes not only part of the work but also a locus of attention. The end result is that the experience of the viewer is not solely directed by me, it is also influenced by the original architect as well as every individual (whether electrician, carpenter, or previous artist) that has left a mark upon the space. Each installation is a conversation with all of these past mark-makers.

In my wallpaper installations, I create flocked wallpaper using the dirt, dust, and lint that I gather while cleaning the installation site. In this body of work, domestic labor and the installation process have fused into a single project. I create a new environment with the almost invisible detritus of everyday life.

Lisa Perez
Working with various materials and methods, Lisa Perez's art embraces an ambiguity in the definitions and boundaries of sculpture, drawing and installation. Drawing is the starting point of all works from pencil, pen, and paint to paper constructions, installation, and architectural intervention. Her work invites a shift in expectations and engages a recognition of that which often slips into the margins of perception in our hyperspeed culture. Perez received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley and currently lives and works in Providence, RI. Recent exhibitions of her work were installed at the Drawing Center - NYC, RISD - Woods Gerry Gallery, and 5 Traverse Gallery. Recent projects can be viewed here.