Holding it Together
Fall 2024 Collaborative Artist in Residence at Montgomery College, Rockville
The Venn diagram is poetic. The two set, two circle version is beautiful in its simplicity, representing that two things can be in relationship without being identical. The Venn diagram is radical. During Argentina’s military dictatorship of 1976–83, Venn diagrams were banned from being taught in primary schools. It is a visual tool for thinking through common ground and difference that suggests holding, touch, commonality and connection while resisting homogeneity.
I am particularly interested in the region of overlap. If you start with two seemingly unrelated elements assigned to each circle, the prompt is to fill in that shared region, to see the unobvious connections. When the set of elements gets bigger the proposition gets more complex and the commonalities become more subtle and precise.
The Venn diagram is beautiful. It is a visual representation of complex ideas and their multi-set visual manifestation is still being grappled with in mathematics today.
The Venn diagram as a form and the Venn diagram as a tool will be the anchor point for my residency, using it to generate projects of multiple scales. Within the framework of the Venn, we will work with imagery, text and object to propose literal, poetic, and visual overlaps. I will draw upon my own experience as an educator, facilitator and game designer to prompt creative thinking and collaboration as we work with the question: What is shared?
student work from 2D Art
Living Diagram
A living sculpture of found overlaps between objects, text and images.
