Gallery Hijinks Artist: Sarah Applebaum

Imagine an ordinary object: A flat-pack, two-dimensional, paper party decoration. It opens into a 3D honeycomb crepe-paper object such as a bell, a Thanksgiving turkey, or a globe. This thin, book-like form opens, arcing through and filling the surrounding space. It is a simple, visual metaphor for how an object occupying a single plane may, or may have the potential to, exist in another dimension. The shadow often appears more dynamic than the shape that casts it. I aim to discuss my work from this frame of reference, both as a material metaphor, and as applied to the subject matter of my work. There is a shadow to my work, an underlying wealth of symbolism, mysticism, and psychedelia. The geometric landscapes, the Yeti suit (and the strange beings that inhabit it), and the nooses and guns are visual representations of this shadow—this other dimension. The natural world is a major reference point in my work, which is symbolized by the recurring figure of the Yeti—the human who still resides in nature. Death, wonder, and the nature of being are relegated to a dimension of existence that remains both hidden and available to me, just as the two-dimensional paper decoration has the potential to exist in three dimensions. Much of my work has focused on restructuring the flat planes of both whole blankets and individual “granny squares” into three dimensional forms. Most crocheted blankets are made up of “granny squares,” which are individual, crocheted pieces that are stitched together like a quilt. I’ve taken the flat form of a blanket and represented it spatially using its own structure: the flat square becomes a three-dimensional cube. By tessellating a pentagon through three-dimensional space, I’ve experimented with increasingly abstracted geometric constructions. As I’ve continued working with textiles and simplified construction, I’ve begun using a desaturated palate of black, white and greys. Materially speaking, I have come to a place of shadow. This is the plane of intersection between the visual manifestation of form/object and its symbolic nature, the swath of meaning, and the shadow it casts.