 Jill Sylvia
Artist Statement
In an attempt to understand our need to quantify our transactions or output, our need to order, to record, I employ standard ledger paper--a material used, economically, for this very purpose. Growing up, I knew this paper only as my father's "work paper."
I use a razor blade to individually remove tens of thousands of boxes from this paper, leaving behind the lattice of the grid intended to separate the boxes. I cut one sheet per day for one month, two columns per day for thirty six days, one month's budget in four days, one sheet in one month. I involve myself in this routine of trying to make time (and labor) palpable while communicating its loss.
Using the excised boxes, I reconstruct a grid in order to construct a new sense, a new value.
About the Artist
Jill Sylvia (San Francisco) received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005 and a B.A. in Studio Arts from Bard College in 2001. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; Nelson Gallery, University of California-Davis; Mission 17, San Francisco; and the Lacoste École des Arts, Provence, France. She has a solo exhibition in May at the Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco.
Checklist
Untitled (month)
2005
63" x 72 13/16" x 1"
hand-cut ledger paper
Untitled (vertical ledger)
2006
45 1/2" x 7 11/16" (dimensions variable)
hand-cut ledger paper
Untitled (book 2)
2006
11" x 17" x 2"
hand-cut ledger paper
Untitled (reconstruction 3)
2006
36" x 42"
hand-cut ledger paper and matte board
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