deconstructed labyrinth
​A Mutable Installation
at TAM (Torrance Art Museum)
January 24 - March 8, 2022

changes
2.3.2022
​2.16.2022
3.1.2022
this installation has changed into
stage 3

deconstructed labyrinth​, 2022
16ft x 30ft x 60 ft (approx)
Home construction materials, plaster, paint

A Site-Specific Exhibit presented by the Torrance Art Museum
Created by Daniela Soberman 
Curated by Max Presneill, Torrance Art Museum

Labyrinths are said to echo or reflect back to us that which dwells in the deepest, darkest recesses of our own psyche. The goal is to reach the center, the core of our being. Once there, you must find your thread back out again.   
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Thoughts / Studio Notes​​

• When one is about to enter the labyrinth, or already lost within it, we require an Ariadnean thread to help guide us safely back out to the world. ​
  
• An austere/limited color palette 
  • Soothing after constant visual onslaught of media / technology / images / sound / noise -- need to balance with the austere. 
  • Simplify the palette to simplify the message. 
• Rectangles
  • contain simplified inherent tension -- not as symmetrical and balanced as a square, not as comforting as a circle, not as prickly as a triangle.
  • A simplified human
• Why black first? 
  • One of the first colors to ever be used for art (in cave paintings). 
  • Black as the color of rebellion, secrets, a spirit of independence.
  • There is something viscerally satisfying in the dynamic of covering something pristinely white -- in black.
  • Adds immediate energy and interest into something that was otherwise dull/dead/lifeless. It becomes alive, moves, sings. Responds..It’s active. Animated. Vibrant. Full of life,
  • Where there is tension there is life. There is vibration. Rhythm.  
• Once all black
  • like a clean slate. Peace. Depth. So many layers.  Infinite. A mirror. 
• White plaster over,
  • Mother’s milk -- protective, comforting, embracing - a spackle to “cover defects”, a mask, a hard shell, an armor to protect the interior, a show,
• Scraped through, gouged, cut -- by life experience.
  • Beauty created by the imperfections -- not hidden, but showcased. 
• A gauge / scrape / scar--
  • looks like one thing from a distance. Perceptions are set.
  • Convinced that the item is easily read / understood / judged.
  • Upon getting closer, realize that there is something else, hidden underneath. Something deeper. Something beneath the superficial.