In the Grid - Kerry Vander Meer

In the Grid 2013

Installation at Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA

Drawing is associated with intimacy, informality, immediacy, subjectivity, history, memory, and narrative…We use drawing to denote ourselves…it is the means by which we can understand and map, and come to terms with our surroundings…

I have always been fascinated with maps; maps of transit routes, topological, city plans, and building layouts. When very young, I used to draw walls of sand in my sandbox and rake leaves making rooms in my make-believe houses. I have even been known to trespass on construction sites, wandering through the rooms imaging what each room is and who would live there.

“In the Grid” is an installation composed of sculptural grids and geometric forms that create systems as a way for us to make sense of our world. It consists of drawing in space creating networks that are fastened together with unlikely and cast-away materials, such as push pins, map pins, wires, and tapes.

This series of work is done spontaneously and furiously with commonplace and humble materials showing the work of the human hand. Craft materials and atypical found objects are incorporated in unlikely compositions and speak of the complexities and excesses of our environment.

“Rerouting to the West”

Mixed media
74 x 72 x 7.5 in.
2013

“Rerouting to the West” and “Rerouting to the East”

Mixed media
2013

“Rerouting to the West”

Detail

“Rerouting to the East”

Mixed media
87 x 47 x 5 in.
2013

“Hot Pink in Uptown”

Mixed media, chenille stems
80 x 70 x 14 in.
2013

In “Hot Pink in Uptown” a matrix of lines consisting of various shades of pinks created in flexible grids references a city plan or rows of condos. The dense webs of grids accumulate, multiply and grow out of each other forming wobbly networks and making the grid flexible, immediate, and user friendly.