Shape Shifter Exterior, 2021 (Ink, spray paint, cut canvas, vellum, wood support; 168 by 96 inches)
Alexandria Wallace, ’20 MFA Fine Arts
This work is currently on view in a two-person exhibition, Soft Architectures, at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. It is one of two hanging canvas and vellum pieces titled Shape Shifter Exterior. Constructed of three sections of canvas, long sheets of semi-transparent vellum, ink, and acrylic paint, the work stretches 14 feet down from its 8-foot wide wooden support. It sits on the floor, dictating the viewer’s proximity to its facade. The piece is an index of shadow forms I have documented over the past year and compressed together through the use of stencils created from the original images. The result is a surface that appears as if it could separate into several planes of information. I am heavily influenced by my hybrid background as both a painter and photographer. I think of the canvas as photographic paper and the stencil like a negative. As I work, I am layering up multiple exposures of the same forms, which creates a record alluding to the passage of time and the rhythm of the sun.
Soft Architectures was on view at the Irvine Fine Arts Center through May 8, 2021. For more information, please visit AlexandriaWallace.com, and follow her on Instagram, @allywallace.
