http://www.lisaborin.com Lisa Borin Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:15:11 +0000 http://www.lisaborin.com en http://www.lisaborin.com/project-108 http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/project-108 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:15:11 +0000 Lisa Borin 1766462 (GESTURES FOR CREATIVE COMMUNITY BUILDING) PROJECT 108 has a new home! Find the updated project at www.project108.ca ABOUT <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2.jpg" width="670" height="1" width_o="2048" height_o="5" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2_o.jpg" data-mid="8881692" border="0" align="left"/> This is a series of personal gestures (one hundred and eight) for creative community building. Each project is meant to engage others in creative action and thinking. Some gestures may be elaborate while others are seemingly small. There is no timeframe and there are no rules. The website will be updated regularly with any progress. "Between our desire for absolute love and inability to love absolutely lies a great fear. When, despite this paradox, our desires do not die, it is a cause for celebration." -Lina Chantrand <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/book 2.jpg" width="576" height="187" width_o="576" height_o="187" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/book 2_o.jpg" data-mid="8739728" border="0" align="left"/> IDEAS <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2.jpg" width="670" height="1" width_o="2048" height_o="5" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2_o.jpg" data-mid="8881692" border="0" align="left"/> 108 is mathematically abundant, meaning that the sum of its divisors when added is greater than the number itself. It holds spiritual significance in many cultures, as in Japanese Buddhist temples, where a bell is chimed 108 times to close the year and welcome a new one. There are also said to be 108 energy lines in the human body converging at the heart. 108 was chosen for its abundant nature, connection to meditative practice, discipline, and healing. The word COMMUNITY is derived from two Latin roots: ‘munus’ meaning ‘the gift’ and ‘cum’ meaning ‘together among each other.’ Community then can be understood as ‘to give among each other.’ The ultimate goal of this series of actions is to inspire creative thinking and action among one another. ABUNDANCE is an important concept in this work. In its etymological form, ‘abundance’ means to move in waves, undulate, and flow. This differs from the sense of static materiality that it often refers. This project will be about fluid thinking and process-based ways of working. Ideas are not tied to specific material goals. THE PROJECT LIST <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2.jpg" width="670" height="1" width_o="2048" height_o="5" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/1766462/grey bar 2_o.jpg" data-mid="8881692" border="0" align="left"/> For details visit the project at www.project108.ca PROJECT 108, 1 (open heart for art meetings) PROJECT 108, 2 (hopes and fears) PROJECT 108, 3 (community art committee) PROJECT 108, 4 (memory mobiles) PROJECT 108, 5 (art in every moment) PROJECT 108, 6 (release, relent, remit) PROJECT 108, 7 (you, my friend, are more than enough) (GESTURES FOR CREATIVE COMMUNITY BUILDING) PROJECT 108 has a new home! Find the updated project at www.project108.ca ABOUT This is a series of personal... http://www.lisaborin.com/dig-where-you-stand http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/dig-where-you-stand Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:26:35 +0000 Lisa Borin 971370 Laying tracing paper over old family letters, I read them again and again searching for each letter of the alphabet to copy. Each page speaks to a different moment in time, and while the details are always unique, there are commonalities. My Grandmother’s sisters speak of Jesus often and all sign their letters, “Lovingly in Him.” I imagine many letters between sisters in 1946 were similar, familial details rendered through the filter of Christ. As I trace the letters, my primary concern is the individual letter; each ‘a’ for example, is rendered differently, and I attempt to trace the movements of the writer, mimicking their body with mine. Their creation of script is perhaps more individual than their construction of language. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/IMG_2361 copy.jpg" width="648" height="432" width_o="648" height_o="432" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/IMG_2361 copy_o.jpg" data-mid="4762820" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/8 dig where you stand.jpg" width="670" height="391" width_o="2048" height_o="1197" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/8 dig where you stand_o.jpg" data-mid="4763066" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/9 dig where you stand.jpg" width="670" height="446" width_o="2048" height_o="1366" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/9 dig where you stand_o.jpg" data-mid="4762836" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/11 dig where you stand.jpg" width="670" height="446" width_o="2048" height_o="1366" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/11 dig where you stand_o.jpg" data-mid="4762828" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/IMG_2201.jpg" width="670" height="446" width_o="677" height_o="451" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/IMG_2201_o.jpg" data-mid="4763034" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/12 dig where you stand_4.jpg" width="670" height="445" width_o="2048" height_o="1362" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/12 dig where you stand_4_o.jpg" data-mid="4763033" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/10 dig where you stand.jpg" width="670" height="446" width_o="2048" height_o="1366" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/10 dig where you stand_o.jpg" data-mid="4762852" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/7 dig where you stand.jpg" width="648" height="432" width_o="648" height_o="432" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/971370/7 dig where you stand_o.jpg" data-mid="4762874" border="0" align="left"/> sugar and mixed media installation, approx. 20 x 5 feet, 2009 Approximately 250 pounds of granulated sugar rains sporadically from programmed dispensers hung from the ceiling. The sugar is seductive in its soft sound as it dusts tracing paper and sparkly quality when it catches the light. Written on the floor is an expansive alphabet of letters (a-z) and excerpts of text traced from family correspondence that are inscribed on layers of tracing paper. Copying these letters allowed me to mimic the writer’s body with my own, the way a child might when learning to write. Falling sugar buries most of the alphabet on the floor over the course of the exhibition, creating more distance between viewers and the script. Hundreds of polished silver spoons surround the text on the floor and provide a means of unearthing the alphabet beneath. Yet when the sugar is agitated, it erases the carefully rendered letters. Memory is seductive and problematic; it can suddenly cause submergence in the past and yet offers only imperfect recollection when we try to return. I was interested in sugar because of its function as a politically charged material connected to the colonial mission, and its presence in homes for sweetening domestic life. There is an inherent tension between the function of the material and its origin. Similarly, I found that home is often an unwitting arena for political dissemination in a deeply personal and intimate environment. A publication on this work can be found here: www.boulderpavement.ca/issue003/012-i-miss-you/ Laying tracing paper over old family letters, I read them again and again searching for each letter of the alphabet to copy. Each page speaks to a different moment... http://www.lisaborin.com/cradlesong http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/cradlesong Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:46:12 +0000 Lisa Borin 970899 Making mobiles is tedious and painful. I am constantly poked with wires and my hands are raw from pliers and polishing. I have rubbed and rubbed to make tarnished things sparkle, and I have gotten ill from the fumes. But I am happy with the mobiles, happy and seduced. Constructed from several purchases and some donations from my neighbours and family, they are shinning, spinning—hopeful. But I wait for something to give, for the crash, for the fall to the floor. It is difficult to ensure that their weight can be supported. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/1 cradlesong.jpg" width="670" height="447" width_o="1500" height_o="1001" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/1 cradlesong_o.jpg" data-mid="4662664" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/2 cradlesong.jpg" width="670" height="447" width_o="1500" height_o="1001" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/2 cradlesong_o.jpg" data-mid="4662670" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/3 cradlesong.jpg" width="670" height="447" width_o="1500" height_o="1001" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/3 cradlesong_o.jpg" data-mid="4662674" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/5 cradlesong.jpg" width="670" height="447" width_o="1500" height_o="1001" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970899/5 cradlesong_o.jpg" data-mid="4662676" border="0" align="left"/> gallery view, collected vintage serving dishes, jewelry and mixed media installation, approx. 16 x 16 feet, 2009 cradlesong consists of 50 mobiles made from collected and polished vintage serving items and jewelry. Each is connected to a motor that spins the mobile and a re-constructed and tinny version of “Mamma’s going to buy you a mockingbird” plays from above. The piece began with an investigation into lullabies. I was interested in the lyrics of songs like ‘Mamma’s going to buy you a mockingbird’ that promote security through the accumulation of domestic things. I found that there was a strong contradiction between the physical nurturing that typically comforts a child when a lullaby is sung and the message of the song that promotes attainment. These mobiles are aesthetic symbols of inheritance, both seductive and distracting. While they are shiny, spinning, and hopeful they are also weighty and unsettling for viewers when standing underneath. The mobiles are positioned so that they are out of reach and viewers are bathed in shadows. cradlesong proposes that values are inscribed through spoken language, a language of material, and memory. A publication on this work can be found here: www.boulderpavement.ca/issue003/012-i-miss-you/ Making mobiles is tedious and painful. I am constantly poked with wires and my hands are raw from pliers and polishing. I have rubbed and rubbed to make tarnished... http://www.lisaborin.com/little-houses http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/little-houses Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:23:07 +0000 Lisa Borin 970857 My work is grounded in an exploration of material, its origin, its cultural connotations, and its inherent ability to be understood through the senses. For example, there is often an immediacy of understanding that happens when we can touch something. For this piece, I considered how ‘home’ might be conveyed through gesture and material. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970857/little houses detail.jpg" width="360" height="259" width_o="360" height_o="259" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970857/little houses detail_o.jpg" data-mid="4662403" border="0" align="left"/> detail of houses, hand-made felt and thread, 2008 Felt making is an intense physical process; it relies on gestures of teasing out rovings, laying them in perpendicular arrangements, rubbing with soapy water, rinsing, and throwing. The process is a careful, loving, yet at times aggressive one that results in a sturdy fabric of intertwined fibre. I was attracted to felt not only for its gestural process of making but also the coziness that it conveys. The structures are at once secure and fragile. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970857/little houses installation 2.jpg" width="360" height="250" width_o="360" height_o="250" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/970857/little houses installation 2_o.jpg" data-mid="4662397" border="0" align="left"/> installation view of 50 houses, hand-made felt and thread, approx. 10 x 4 feet, 2008 This piece is also connected to my heritage, not only for the prominence of felt in Scandinavian tradition, but also because navigating my way around the houses reminds me of being a child and flying over snow covered houses to visit family. My work is grounded in an exploration of material, its origin, its cultural connotations, and its inherent ability to be understood through the senses. For example,... http://www.lisaborin.com/ways-of-knowing http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/ways-of-knowing Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:03:32 +0000 Lisa Borin 968153 Following a series of book works, I focused my attention on how understanding occurs through sense. I began to explore how experiences are manifest in the body and recreated over time through memory. My focus was on skin as a permeable membrane between the interior of the body and world ‘outside,’ which is constantly being pulled in through sense and intellect. }<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 4.jpg" width="367" height="505" width_o="367" height_o="505" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 4_o.jpg" data-mid="4662038" border="0" align="left"/>}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 2.jpg" width="594" height="433" width_o="594" height_o="433" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 2_o.jpg" data-mid="4662012" border="0" align="left"/>}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 3.jpg" width="632" height="459" width_o="632" height_o="459" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 3_o.jpg" data-mid="4662036" border="0" align="left"/>}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 1.jpg" width="349" height="480" width_o="349" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968153/ways of knowing 1_o.jpg" data-mid="4662009" border="0" align="left"/> mixed media and digital photograph, a series of four, 21 x 17 inches, 2007 Photography courtesy of Mark Neufeld I crafted gloves and stockings out of nylon and hand-stitched script along them. The words capture moments in time such as ‘I felt you softly slip away.’ Photographic images depict the objects both on my body and in the process of being removed. The removal of the text-based objects signals that fleeting moments exist around us, pass through and are archived in memory, but these instances are fragile, prone to loss through forgetting, and under the constant shift of perception as we navigate through time. Following a series of book works, I focused my attention on how understanding occurs through sense. I began to explore how experiences are manifest in the body and... http://www.lisaborin.com/embedded http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/embedded Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:38:51 +0000 Lisa Borin 968128 I was interested in the tradition of books as handmade objects containing carefully constructed worlds within. I spent time working with a bookbinder to learn to make books and this piece is composed of three of them. Carefully I went through each one, cutting away paper in concentric circles to form round caves. Nestled inside each is a small ball of text that has been wound from excised found text fragments. The pieces encourage interaction and engagement. Often viewers are surprised when they open the books to find delicate spools that roll out and animate the piece. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968128/embedded detail square.jpg" width="453" height="453" width_o="453" height_o="453" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968128/embedded detail square_o.jpg" data-mid="4661779" border="0" align="left"/> detail view from a series of three pieces, handbound-books and text cut-outs, approx. 8 x 5.5 x 2 inches, 2007 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968128/embedded spine copy.jpg" width="360" height="540" width_o="360" height_o="540" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968128/embedded spine copy_o.jpg" data-mid="4729118" border="0" align="left"/> detail view of three handbound-books, approx. 8 x 5.5 x 2 inches, 2007 I was interested in the tradition of books as handmade objects containing carefully constructed worlds within. I spent time working with a bookbinder to learn to... http://www.lisaborin.com/paper-dress http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/paper-dress Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:21:38 +0000 Lisa Borin 968158 As an undergraduate student I studied Visual Art and Literature. I found that the two areas naturally merged in the studio. Particularly I was interested in the ways that acquired knowledge constructs a framework within which we operate and is constructed from various sources over time. paper dress is hand-stitched from book pages, many of which are canonical examples of poetry and prose. Some of these pages are loosely attached and could fall away as acquired knowledge and memories are sometimes prone to do. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968158/paper dress 2.jpg" width="264" height="429" width_o="264" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968158/paper dress 2_o.jpg" data-mid="4661688" border="0" align="left"/> collected book pages, thread, and mixed media, approx. 5 feet by 2.5 feet, 2006 As an undergraduate student I studied Visual Art and Literature. I found that the two areas naturally merged in the studio. Particularly I was interested in the... http://www.lisaborin.com/thread http://www.lisaborin.com/following/lisaborin.com/thread Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:18:13 +0000 Lisa Borin 968130 Someone told me that ‘reading is like following a thread.’ As a result I became preoccupied with gestural references in language, particularly expressions relating to how information is ‘pulled together,’ or neatly ‘tied up,’ etc. This series of work attempts to make these physical references visible. Poetry books were dissected and the extracted lines of text were reconfigured to form new narratives, taking the form of thread. In order to read the thread, it is necessary to unwind the spools. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968130/thread copy.jpg" width="360" height="361" width_o="360" height_o="361" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968130/thread copy_o.jpg" data-mid="4661427" border="0" align="left"/> text cut-outs and spools, 2 x 1 inch, 2007 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968130/thread detail copy.jpg" width="360" height="342" width_o="360" height_o="342" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/70899/968130/thread detail copy_o.jpg" data-mid="4661474" border="0" align="left"/> detail of text, 2007 Someone told me that ‘reading is like following a thread.’ As a result I became preoccupied with gestural references in language, particularly expressions...