Jessica Chan
Intermediate Print
Professor Harry Reese
23 October 2011
Swoon
Caledonia Dance Curry, known in the art world as Swoon, is a native Floridian, but is a
Brooklyn based artist, best known for her life-size wheat paste wood block prints and intricate
paper cuttings. She moved to New York City at the age of 19 and attended Pratt institute
originally to study painting. Uncomfortable with the idea that her art would only being seen in
the exclusive context of galleries and museums, in 1999, her art moved out onto the streets.
Swoon’s artwork is all about context--participation and
interaction with her audience and features mainly
everyday people from her life and encounters.
Her work is widely influenced from historical
art such as German expressionist wood block prints to
folk art and delicate Indonesian shadow puppets. Her
wheat paste portraits include people from diverse
cultural backgrounds and are presented in
coordination with the buildings they are pasted on.
These pieces are studies of how people interact with
architecture and city environments. Swoon wanted to create work that expanded beyond her
own being and could directly impact others. By pasting her work in public areas where
thousands of people pass through, it changes the environment and continues to change it as
the prints slowly decay and disappear. Each time a person stops and looks at one of her pieces,
he/she is given a chance to interact with the environment in a different way.
This is the beauty of public art and printmaking. Public areas provide the agency for
prints to be seen. Printmaking has the abilitiy to be mass produced and put out into the world
without much thought; unlike other forms of art such as painting or drawing, printed art can be
shared without regret because more can always be made. It is highly accessible and the
aesthetic is bold. Swoon’s work is stunning visually, but also carries weight in meaning. The
entire image can be taken in as a whole as well as appreciated for the details. There is a
dialogue between her printed and paper cut work.
I was drawn to her work
because I really enjoyed her
aesthetic. Now that I know more, I
appreciate that her work is available
to the public and is about something
greater than her own experience.
Swoon’s art carries realistic
qualities, but also stylized in a
unique way that I admire. Her
portraits hold distinct personalities
and emotions that are created
through her mark making—
something I want to do in my own work.
The care that is taken into carving a wood
block is directly connected to paper cutting. Both are
translations of drawing and painting, which are two
mediums Swoon includes still in her work. This type
of translation is interesting to me because I want to
explore the medium of paper cutting and gain more
printmaking techniques to incorporate into my own
body of work. The fact that the artist is able to let go
of her art and put it into the world to not only share,
but to let decay, is the sort of attitude I want to have. Art comes from a personal reaction to the
world, but is meant to be put into that world, not sequestered in pristine white rooms.
Bibliography
"BKRW.COM Extraordinaire Digital Magazine about Extraordinaire Products » SWOON –
THALASSA Installation at NOMA." BKRW.COM Extraordinaire Digital Magazine about
Extraordinaire Products. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bkrw.com/swoon-thalassainstallation-at-noma/>.
"Curbs and Stoops | SWOON: Mission District, San Francisco." Curbs and Stoops:Contemporary
Art. Accessible. Curbs. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.curbsandstoops.com/swoonpiece-in-mission-district-san-francisco/>.
Katherine. "Swoon « PRINTERESTING." PRINTERESTING. 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.printeresting.org/tag/swoon/>.
"Printmaking Today with ROA Installation." Welcome to Black Rat Projects. Black Rat Projects.
Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.blackratprojects.com/projects/view/printmakingtoday-with-roa-installation>.
"Swoon - a Gallery on Flickr." Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. Flickr. Web. 20 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/hryckowian/galleries/72157621980500654/>.
"Swoon.jpg." Web. 20 Oct. 2011.
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xcmEc7FlPU0/SaGS1o5JBiI/AAAAAAAAC9k/6eZkp6Xb_Gk/s
320/swoon_work_5.jpg>.