Julia M. Becker
The Floating and Transient World

At Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, MT
May through June, 1998

Floating and Transient World Installation

This body of work involves stenciling, collaging, hand-printing and laminating rice and assorted papers into large hanging sheets that serve as maps, fields, pages and/or walls (as in their in installation as shelters). The light shines through the physical material in varying densities giving them the feel of skin. They move with the air, they are not static. They are meant to be visually explored. When these laminated skins are installed as walls to create a dwelling, one may physically enter the imagery wherein the imagery embraces the viewer. The physical materials represent and respond to light and shadow, air and movement; viewers shadows intermingle with the layers of images.

The process of creating the work is tactile. It involves touching and rubbing every surface, pressing and burnishing the translucent layers, while physically weaving and layering color, form, story, symbol and lexicon. Aesthetically and physically I am interested in the imprint, the track left behind, the fossil record, the current produced - by the inevitable journey (of life). My fascination with weaving as an approach to image-making (and life) and thoughts of transitory presence and absence (birth and death, and the passage in-between) are evident in the work. The stenciling technique itself for example exemplifies presence and absence simultaneously. It is there, yet empty as if it were a flash of light, or shadow.

I am interested in the physical body of living things - from cellular to human/animal to ocean/continent to universe - specifically in the interactions and interdependence of nervous, circulatory and energy systems. Visually these connections occur in the work through the ongoing layering, interweaving and equating of various reoccurring essential elements, for example: arteries as rivers (and tree branches, antlers...), synapses as ever present current (and rhythm, vibration, pattern...), ribs as wings, fruits and buds as fertility, etc. We are all one open system, eternally connected.

The imagery seeks to connect the structural and energy systems of human anatomy and physiology, botany and architecture in that all are natural and universal growing systems. Anatomy is the bone structure related to architecture (and art) as the inner frame that holds society together. Botany and physiology represent life energy, fertility, creative process, the cycle of life (decomposition and regeneration). Also, the living body/form/structure of plant, human, and building are all dwellings of the soul, temple bodies, each complete with interrelated effects and compositions of electrical, metabolic and circulatory systems - stacked, hinged, flowing and synapsing.

These ideas break down into other personal metaphors wherein the building represents marriage, the river and swimmer represent travel/journey and freedom, the antlered head represents communication, learning and teaching, for example. The translations may be further specified as representation of particular people and events, though this is not necessarily recognized, nor is it necessary to be, by the viewer.

There is also an interest in the intimacy and handling of books (pages) and shelters (tents) in that one may choose to enter into and interact with them through touch and exploration. This participatory nature of this work involves reading the images as one would a map and involving oneself as on a journey. By entering the space (of the image) hopefully the inclination is to swim through it, amongst it, in and out, finding treasures and surprises along the way. The imagery is linear and layered and the interactions and polyrhythms are intentional.

In these large field pieces both the narrative and figurative approach function on a choreographic level, as the final and ongoing emphasis is related to journey rather than stillness, on travel rather than singular moment. The large singular figure pieces (Woman with Bear, Child with Buffalo, Man with Flower...) serve as a form of boundary or living body (continent) in which to create a map of the world, an electromagnetic mapping system of energy, light, evolution and flow.

The center piece in this exhibit is part of a series of tents I have been working on. These works are dwellings, shelters, tents...both physically and metaphorically. They serve as temples of the soul, dwellings of the spirit, houses (or more temporary in the form of tents) that extend our physical bodies into a sacred space: enclosure. The actual material is worked to resemble skin, the images become tattoos: they are physically part of the skin, bled into and through; they are embedded, stained, forever. The idea of the shelter as an extension of the human body is ancient, inherent to us as human beings. The portable shelter ties into our lives as nomadic peoples, the transience of our presence, the power of our passing.

The imagery may appear to be of a dream imagery; it is a floating world at times free of gravity and burden. It is a place of spirit, light, energy and flight- though dedicated to true stories and earthly phenomena (botany, anatomy, neurology ...). Within its boundaries, expressions and metaphors for birth, death, survival, healing and the continual celebration of life surface. The work speaks, and sings, about the dance of life- this dance continuum where vulnerability is strength, transience has form, and love encompasses all. We are all eternal and passing within this molecular motion. Simultaneously we yearn, we pulse, we flow; the wind comes at us and through us in all directions, yet we persevere in our knowing.

Julia M. Becker 1997

Anatomy of the Temple

Shiva Viva

Energy Anatomy
(Anatomy of the Templeseries)

details of Floating Tent