Mary Campbell
About
my work- 2005
A visual artist for over 20 years, Mary Campbell began the performance
"Sitting and Knitting" in 2001 at the request to make a piece for the
first "Day de Dada" Performance Art Event.
"Sitting and Knitting" is an ongoing creation in public and private
of a continual piece of knitting. It is presently 9 1/2" wide and over 60
feet long. Began as a comment on competition in society, the performance
evolved to a contemplation of the passage of time and diligence of life as viewers
questions of the piece were about time factors- how long has it taken to knit
so far, how long will it continue?
Most of the visual artwork originates from a combination of life events and an
interest in how our society shapes ideas. Beginning as a
painter of still lifes that were contemporary
social archetypes and cliches.
After Gallbladder surgery a series of human heart sculptures used the theme of
heart related expressions, and set the theme of using the image of the human
heart for many years as a symbolic catalyst using mystical connotations and
social references.
Active in the East Village Art scene of the 80's she was included in many
gallery shows and did several window installations. Sharing studio space in the
2B Gas Station (Second Street and Avenue B, NYC), she curated
several shows there and created a 6 foot wooden human heart sculpture on the
studio grounds.
Being a parent and working as an early childhood art teacher resulted in series
of digital photographs of children in costume and then an exploration of chaos.
A brush with cancer started a series of prints- an
exploration of the chaos of cancer cells.
And then the knitting work began. Another recent knit piece is "48" a
visual diary of the 48th year of life, in which each day is five rows of
knitting representing the mood, emotions, feelings, expressions for the day-
achieving a unique color pattern for the year.
Born in
2002
In the past year I have been exploring chaos. I became interested as it has
crept more and more into my life over the years and I decided I wanted to use
chaos as an image/idea in my work.
Reading James Gleick's book "Chaos" I got
some history of chaos theory. Then I read "Archetypes and Strange
Attractors, Chaotic World of Symbols" by John R. Van Eenwyk
(1997) which talked about chaos more from a social science than mathematical
viewpoint. The book made me realize the need of chaos- "Chaos and order
exist in a reciprocal relationship. Chaos often the original
state over which order must triumph.
Jung saw this as exemplifying the need for opposition, with it's
inherent tension, in the process of development."
Influencing my imagery were two artworks hanging in my studio, containing a
feeling I was thinking about to express chaos. One a mixed media collage by Sam
Gilliam and the other a craypas resist from a boy who
was in a class at a Homes for the Homeless site in
Jazz Portraits and Sarah Sze's Biennial Installation.
Taking lots of pictures of chaos, (my home environment was helpful here), I started appreciating the aesthetics of a chaotic area when
it was cropped in my viewfinder. Venturing out into the world seeking chaos, I
found it in many places.
I decided to add to my prints of chaos and embroidered on them and used words
from my lists. I also explored the imagery in many ballpoint sketches and some
ceramic pieces.
Looking through a book of birds nests, I realized their relationship to my
chaotic home environment, my nest, and recently began working with similar nest
imagery in my art.