Rope as a Mark-Making Tool and Making Rope as Sculpture
Arts Engagement Program, Phoenix Art Museum (program for individuals with memory loss and their caregivers)

Projects commissioned by the Phoenix Art Museum
Images courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum. Photos by Airi Katsuta.

Rope, paint, wood, mylar, duralar, grease and chalk mark-making materials
Wide variety of fabrics including denim, velvet, nets, gauze, flannel, ready-made clothing, shoe laces and sequins

Studio sessions in spring 2019 focused on rope as a material in art-making using a number of 2- and 3-dimensional techniques. In our first session, we played with rope 2-dimensionally using rope in combination with both wet and dry mark-making materials to explore transparency, overlap and layering.  In our second session, we explored rope as a 3D sculptural material by using a variety of materials to make our own rope and then temporarily combining them with each other’s to form a sculptural web.  As we moved through these processes we explored our associations with rope as a connector, and more broadly with nets and webs.  As we worked in the studio, associations with play, childhood, domestic life, sports, technology, TV and media, and the natural world emerged.