Practice (2019)
Practice
The William J. and Pearl F. Lemmon Gallery at Kent State Stark
North Canton, Ohio
April 11 - May 4, 2019
I keep trying to make work about the experience of attention, about how the present doesn’t exist, about how every single moment won’t hold still. The second it starts, it is already passing away.
I keep trying, and I keep failing to reach my goal. But I scootch closer in chunky, tripping steps and in graceful undulations. I keep practicing.
The works in Practice are born of a longing for stillness and a compulsion towards action. They aren’t about anything new. I’m not the first artist to be interested in time, embodiment or repetition. I’m not the first to deal with human mark-making or the material byproducts of my physical world. I won’t be the last to see art-making as a spiritual practice.
These works aren’t about anything new. . . but newness is an illusion anyway. I’m fascinated by all the experiences we keep having, and how they are both the same and unique every time they occur. These works are about the sacredness of everyday cycles. The repetitions we choose to practice daily are intimately linked to the repeated human experiences we don’t consent to. We age and get sick. We experience loss and feel exhausted by the process of living. We die.
In the meantime, I practice. (Stacia Yeapanis, 2019)
This program partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Read a review of the show by Tom Wachunas.