01.25.2024 - 02.07.2024
Lawrence Alloway Memorial Gallery, Stony Brook University
Bycatch is a term used in the fishing industry that refers to any fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. In the context of fishing, it usually holds a negative connotation as non-target organisms are often seriously harmed or do not survive; casualties of the efficiency and non-selectiveness of modern day fishing practices.
I have chosen to look at the term ‘bycatch’ in a more positive light as I have found that some of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of my artistic practice and life have been the things that I have found unintentionally. As an advocate of the crab, I have often pondered what it means to take a sideways approach. If there is a clear course to my final objective, doesn't it make the most sense to charge right for it?
I believe that intellectual bycatch caught in our own netted thoughts exist in the subconscious. What messages and lessons have I ignored, as they weren’t what I was looking for? How do I learn from the unintended? Engaging in loose drawings with an open mind has provided me with a way to explore and attempt to answer these questions. I often arrive at more questions than answers, but how else are we to approach the unknown?
Upon entering the gallery, the leftmost wall is inhabited by a large mass of prints, plates, and small form drawings. They are arranged in a manner meant to evoke the casual atmosphere of an artist’s studio; scattered thoughts that have yet to be organized and fully digested.
On the rear wall, a series of drawings invites you on a journey, destination undecided. Abstractions drawn from the subconscious create inviting forms intended to reimagine how the mundane can transform and marks speak to one another, inspired by marine iconographies.
The title wall features an intuitively created mural of a horseshoe crab, drawn with bay mud. This serves as a reminder to listen when the mind speaks, no matter how absurd. Its rendering acts as a grounding process, as mud as a medium acts as a reminder to reconnect with nature.
The mud speaks
The mind listens
Vortex Quartet, 2023, each 50 x 30" (From left to right: Vortex, Vision, Void, Valley)
