Colleen Wolstenholme
Multiply Connected Triangle II
2015

Name: Multiply Connected Triangle II
Brand: Colleen Wolstenholme
Price: 6600 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

By Sophie Lynch In Hyperobjects, Nova Scotia-based artist Colleen Wolstenholme presents works that developed from her earlier drawings of brain cell patterns and her interest in the way consciousness emerges from physical formations in the brain. While philosophers and scientists have persistently pondered the nature of consciousness, some have questioned whether our most private and qualitative experiences of the world could ever be explained by neural oscillations in the cerebral cortex. Carried by the current of her interest in the puzzling problem of consciousness, Wolstenholme’s most recent work is an attempt to grasp complex configurations that elude total comprehension. As a member of the object-oriented philosophy movement, Timothy Morton defines hyperobjects as “things that are massively distributed in time and space relative to humans,” systems and undetectable forces that have a real and powerful effect on our world. We might notice manifestations of their constellations, but hyperobjects ultimately challenge the assumption that humans can stand outside, transcend or master all systems and objects in the world. Wolstenholme’s drawings of wind patterns are complex assemblages that imply larger systems and entanglements that point to the inadequacy of human attempts at knowing and understanding. Blowing over hills and escarpments, or tracing the flows and speeds of gusts of wind, Wolstenholme’s lines are derived from the codes and relations of a found Earth wind map that unfurls data on global wind conditions in real-time. The coordinates and patterns of breezes, violent currents or blizzards delineated on the found map function as algorithms that Wolstenholme translates into immense drawings. Coloured lines signal temperature shifts, which change and recur with the predictability of strong winds pummeling a coast. The steady direction and speed of winds undulate on Wolstenholme’s maps like the ridgelines of dunes in the desert. While the titles of her wind map drawings describe precise geographical coordinates, they also pinpoint the sways of larger systems and entanglements. Curves and funnel-shaped vortexes that may signal the location of violently rotating winds are also attuned to the movements of vast patterns. Wolstenholme also explores the relation between parts and wholes in welded steel geometric sculptures, works that can be configured and reconfigured in different formations. Steel triangles or hexagonals articulate grid patterns; like the connecting threads of an entangling mesh, the adjoining shapes are arranged into interconnected networks. Wolstenholme creates and reconstructs her steal sculptures extemporaneously, like a jazz musician may improvise with melodies, rhythms and harmonies. Rather than improvising or departing from a musical notation system, Wolstenholme establishes rules, such as selecting a form or materials that allow her sculptures to execute themselves. These assemblages do not form closed systems, but are continually being revised and enter into different relations with one another. The steel works are coated with layers of powder that glows in the dark, which allows the systems of connections that usually remain invisible to emit light and be perceived without a light source.

Creator:

Colleen Wolstenholme (1963, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2015

Dimensions:

Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 42 in (106.68 cm)Depth: 11 in (27.94 cm)

Medium:

Metal

Movement & Style:

Abstract

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Montreal, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU4761024893

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Shop All Colleen Wolstenholme

Colleen Wolstenholme

Best known for the jewelry and figurative sculptures based on a range of pharmaceutical drugs that garnered her widespread notoriety in the late 1990s, prolific artist Colleen Wolstenholme has also created abstract drawings and other works over the years that continue to stimulate dialogue and attract attention.

Born in 1963 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Wolstenholme became interested in visual arts while studying fashion design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. After earning her bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1986, she continued her studies and received her master’s degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1992, where she specialized in metal and jewelry arts.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Wolstenholme worked with a range of mediums such as jewelry, sculpture, digital collage, painting and embroidery to create art that served as social criticism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, she made oversized plaster-cast sculptures and silver or gold jewelry that took the form of antidepressant pills and capsules in order to address several issues, including the fact that drugs are prescribed at disproportionate rates to women versus men, that the healthcare industry is overly reliant on prescribing drugs, and that anyone in treatment and on a course of medication is generally made to feel less healthy than those who aren’t. Wolstenholme’s provocative work made headlines in the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and Psychology Today.

Wolstenholme’s art has also seen her unpacking her interest in the human brain. This is demonstrated in such abstract sculptures as Deviant Grid, the “Matrix Index” series and Spatial Anomaly in which she depicts the brain’s neurons. In her “Hyperobjects” series, Wolstenholme also focuses on systems that “humans have little power over but control and constrain us.” These include figurative drawings and abstract drawings of wind patterns, titled with geographical coordinates.

Wolstenholme’s art is part of the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

On 1stDibs, find a range of Colleen Wolstenholme sculptures, drawings and watercolor paintings.