Mark Twain, a site-specific floor
to ceiling (12’ high) installation, consists of hundreds of circles cut and
folded into paper fans that are sewn together and strung up into columns with
thread, each ending in a lead fishing weight.
The footprint of the work is an oblique reference to a ship and the
title, Mark Twain, a term of measure used by Mississippi River boatsmen of the
19th Century to indicate the river was two fathoms or 12 feet deep and safe for
a steam boat to pass. The height
places the viewer in a position as if submerged and looking up at the water’s
surface. This altered perspective offers
the opportunity to contemplate the ways we all navigate the unknown. It also references the canals outside the
Arsenale and its significant history as a place where ships were built.
Mark Twain employs the
minimal geometry that artist Liz Jaff has developed to explore ideas of love,
commitment, sacrifice and memory of time and space. For this exhibition, Jaff has
obsessively cut, folded and sewn paper and string with exacting consistency.
Her compulsion to make sense of time and space through repetition, shape and
form is reflected in the very structure of the work. It is an opportunity to contemplate our relationship to water, one of our most important natural resources.
