For a while now I have been interested in the urgency and absurdity of what I think of as temporary, site-specific constructions of meaning. Spectacle intertwined with attempts at communication and definition. My artistic practice often considers the materiality of language and systems, and I am interested in the potential structures of both meaning and meaninglessness; the absurdity and fragility of all symbolic systems, of what is understood/not-understood/misunderstood.
In s'Hertogenbosch for example I needed to attempt necromancy with William Blake; in LA to find the distance between 2 Qs; in Berlin I needed to make a dynamo-powered lightning bolt oracle; and in Eugene, Oregon I had to construct and wheel about a machine whereby language is kept malleable with saltwater/tears.
These are usually somewhat private and awkward actions, while at the same time always taking place in dimensions and spaces that make them completely public. Human beings carting around their meaning: this is the situation that haunts me and that I find necessary to articulate.
All work 2010-2007
Please visit my website for more information.
Abby Donovan
181 Monroe Street
Eugene
Portland, OR
97402
Oregon
North America
