Black and White, Shades of Gray

The diptych Black and White examines the warped perspective of seeing things only in black-and-white terms. Politicians and the media use this simplified way of presenting information, where the only alternatives are good or evil, for or against, right or wrong.

This dichotomy is manifested in the stitch patterns of the two sculptures. The black sculpture depicts the energy pattern of a nuclear explosion stitched in white thread. The white sculpture depicts the same drawing in black thread, but the drawing has been rotated in AutoCAD to be seen from an aerial view, showing a symmetrical, mandala-like pattern, seemingly innocent of its reference to a nuclear explosion.

Three pieces, each titled Gray Area, accompany the diptych Black and White as a five-sculpture installation. Their stitch patterns use phenomena of water—the global currents of the world’s oceans, the exiting tidal patterns of the San Francisco Bay Area, and principles of surface and undercurrents—to illustrate the capacity for cyclical return, letting go, and opposite forces coexisting.

Additional Bodies of Work