NY ARTS

Vol. 5 No 4 April 2000

Ellen Stavitsky, Recent Work @ OK Harris

Echoes of memories, the erasure of time. When one reviews the past through the scrims of the present, what remains? The small subtle mixed media works on panel Stavitsky exhibits are epistles of the past and present, sending their substance into the future. The works have a wide spectrum of incongruous references, from the lyrics of Van Morrison songs to Joss paper, a symbolic metal foil on rice paper that is burned on Chinese New Year as an offering to the gods of plenitude. With regards to her compositional designs, Stavitsky states: "I've always worked with architectural references. The compositions relate to doors or windows, post and lintel." The pieces, with titles like Quality Street, Silver Words, and No Religion, have a basic grid structure that expresses a Japanese restraint. Natural wood, pages of text collected from old books, and the rice paper provide the coloristic base note upon which the foil and calligraphic-like sketching delineate rhythm and augment the schemes. Sheets of rice paper that become translucent when glued obscure what lies beneath them. Ironically, by adding and covering, Stavitsky removes and erases. Foils become soft grays with none of their metallic sheen.

Layer upon layer is built up. Lines and text are diminished to mere ghosts. Stavitsky's use of reduction is as important as her additions. Childhood penmanship exercises, French poetry, scribbled song lyrics -all recede under planes of translucent paper like memories. Each level of distance alters the color and memories. What might have seemed important becomes muted. Those things which seemed unpleasant may provide a charming bit of tonal nuance. Overall compositional structure is softened but remains grounded.

James Kalm