When Emily Payne arrived for her 2019 artist residency at Vermont Studio Center, she had no preconceived ideas of the direction her work there would take, just some pencils and a few other basic art materials. A walk in the woods drew her eye to some dangling pine needles, and it was their shape and gesture that were to inform her work in Vermont as well as the series of work recently on view at Seager/Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, “Burst.”
Payne first exhibited with Seager/Gray, then Donna Seager Gallery, in the gallery’s annual show “The Art of the Book.” All of the two-dimensional surfaces that she works on are, in fact, comprised of book covers and pages stripped from their bindings and adhered to panel. They perform the function of both the ground, and at times, figure, of the 2-dimensional work. Rather than employing paint or other pigments as one might expect, an unusual twist is that all of the color in the work is provided by these same book covers or end pages.
Payne’s sculptural process uses steel wire which she unspools, bends and shapes to create splaying, suspended shapes evoking the form and energy of the sprays of needles. These structures are then wall or ceiling mounted on a variety of supports—some found objects, others custom fabricated for the work. In her translation of the sculptures to the two-dimensional objects, Payne bathes them in light in order to cast shadows onto the paper or canvas; she traces these out and the delicate skeletal forms, now enlarged, become the subject matter of the works on panel.
There were an assortment of these on display, ranging from intimate in scale to a large-scale immersive works. Rich colors of the book covers evoke a sense of time and place. Scrawled names, marks, and other pentimenti further evoke the history of the objects. Limb (2020) combines cool hues, indigo blues and royal purples, juxtaposed with the subtle tonal variations of graphite applied on the adjoining panel. Payne creates the form of the traced shape in a variety of ways—most often the strips of book cover are applied on top, in some areas instead carved away. With the shadow’s shape now defined by the strips, the artist then performs a Zen-like and labor-intensive process of drawing in the negative space. Working on top of the surface with graphite pencils adds another layer of texture and line, evidence of the artist’s hand and the passage of time coming into play.
While the two-dimensional works are fascinating in themselves, they provide a dramatic backdrop and foil to the sculptural installations. Awash (2020) challenges human scale with a veil of lengthy wires suspended from a curving armature mounted high on the wall, their delicate lines sweeping down to near one’s knees. The thicket of wire suggests lengthy tresses of stiff hair, perhaps human or animal, the gaps in spacing allowing the viewer to see through it, in some cases easily, where spacing is more generous, or with greater difficulty, as at the top, where overlapping skeins of wire create a denser field. A segment on the far right appears as though clipped shorter, lending an element of mystery and the unexpected. Delicately suspended, the pieces come to life when air currents in the room cause them to sway or flutter.
A two-dimensional work, Big Flare (2020) more closely relates to the pine needle shape that inspired the work. In this large-scale piece, vibrant hues of tangerine and coral anchor the image to the top of the support. The pale book-plates, in hues of tan and gray, morph into a lighter-hued ground as we descend in the piece; the splaying wire shadows also lighten, turning white on the ground of end pages covered with intricate graphite marks, and crisscrossed with a geometric pattern of orange book cover striping. While we know the actual botanical source, the shape here can also evoke the human presence, perhaps suggesting an a-line dress with spindly straps. Payne’s fascination with the flowing line of wire and the ways that linear shapes may weave and interlock comes to her honestly, her mother Nina Payne was an accomplished textile artist, her crocheted nest-like objects at times suspended with dangling tails of waxed linen. Acclaimed Bay Area sculptor Ruth Asawa was also a family friend, having attended Black Mountain College with Payne’s uncle. Asawa’s elegant crocheted wire pieces provide inspiration and certainly have helped to inform the work.
Near the gallery entrance Payne mounted a large installation incorporating three sculptural elements suspended from above and a large, red-hued book cover piece which is floor-mounted beneath. Bough Installation (2020) was created in the gallery with the final touch, a pool of black sumi ink, applied on the spot.
While grounded very much in the real world of nature and plants, as well as the tactile and solid materials of paper, fabric, and wire, the conceptual overlay and play between two and three dimensions, foreground and background, light and shadow, lend the works a deeper aspect of complexity. They transport us, much as reading a book might, into an inner realm of thought and reflection.
Barbara Morris