ALYSE RONAYNE October 2011
With a studio process that is fluid and exploratory, the resulting work is as visually complex as it is conceptually nuanced. The work pairs and displays materials in a way where hierarchy is confused and connotation is warped: a dirty drop cloth is repositioned into a giant bow; self-tanner is used like paint. Appearance navigates meaning through a constantly evolving language of abstract forms that allow the pop-cultural references and colloquial material that are sources to remain embedded in the final works.
Paper, recontextualized as a formal device, is elevated from its utilized familiarity to aesthetic. The sculptural works are composed of different types of paper, ranging from traditional Rives BFK printmaking paper to cellophane and bubble wrap. Collaged materials are affixed and de-fixed from the surface creating texture, pictorial and ghost image; celebratory materials are applied in banality. Large surfaces are pulled in directions away from the wall, projecting awkwardly. They are held into curved position by thread with small silver bells – a delicate, decorative material that is the backbone of an entire warping sculpture. The structures, whether two- or three-dimensional, are both commanding and casual. They are held to the wall with painted pushpins, an aesthetic object of both décor and function. The work exists within a queer, difficult-to-define space: they are surprising in their simplicity, luminosity, weightlessness, but also their cruddy, ugly heft. They are not necessarily balancing between these extremes, but instead existing within a threshold between the two, in a liminal space. Like a minority group betwixt and between, these works are not fully integrated into a specific medium.
Alyse Ronayne was born in Detroit, MI and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. Her work has been shown with Open Space in Baltimore, MD; Craighead Green in Dallas, TX; extra extra and Bodega in Philadelphia, PA; and most recently with AD Projects in New York, NY. Her writing was published in Possible Press’ third Issue, which was released at Miami Art Basel in 2010.
