August 21, 2002

Jane South's Working Drawing Debuts September 21 at MASS MoCA

(North Adams, Mass.) For the past several months, Williams College artist-in-residence Jane South has been making her way to North Adams several times a week to create a new piece in MASS MoCA's Massachusetts Electric Co. Mezzanine Gallery on the second floor of Building 11. Nearing completion, South's finished piece will debut on September 21. Visitors to the museum before September 21 are invited to see the work-in-progress and watch South while she works.

Filling some 80 feet of wall space in this long narrow gallery flooded with natural light, South's Working Drawing explores the activity of drawing in relation to sculpture. South sketches the outlines of architectural and industrial components on paper and then cuts them out to make delicate three-dimensional sculptures. Working Drawing consists of dozens of hand-sized models which resemble Erector set constructions but are crafted from paper and are much more delicate. The reels, girders, and propellers are linked to the wall with tiny paper hooks, cables, and levers.

South describes her work saying, "I am particularly interested in the possibility of combining drawing and sculpture while retaining a simultaneous sense of two- and three-dimensionality. Attached to the wall, the sculptural constructions cast shadows that flatten them out into two dimensions again. Sometimes I trace these shadows and cut them out too, including them as additional elements in the overall composition."

South continues, "Looser more narrative moments connect all these parts together to create a three-dimensional drawing that describes a fragile and playful imaginary landscape of ambiguous perspectives and scales. To strike a harmonious balance, both visual and structural, is like attempting an absurd sort of a puzzle, fraught with the anxiety that a 'misplaced line' could bring the whole thing tumbling down."

South is from Manchester, England, and has an MFA from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. She has received grants and awards from the Williams College Center for Technology in the Arts & Humanities, Dieu Donne Papermill and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. She has exhibited at DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass., the Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Socrates Sculpture Park, and The Drawing Center, all in New York City. She is currently the Arthur Levitt Jr. Artist-in-Residence at Williams College. South is represented by Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on a 13- acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings. MASS MoCA focuses on the work of visual and performing artists charting new territory.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org