Digital collaging, sculpture and works on paper by Elissa Levy. Levy's Camoufleur series includes a room installation of photographs of camouflage fabric that have been digitally collaged and 'painted' to heighten their optical effects. The texture of the fabric is alternately included and omitted to bring the viewer in and out of the design and also to transform the images into a more ambiguous state. The amorphous forms that make up the original camouflage pattern are restructured into one that repeats itself symmetrically.
digital collaging, sculpture and works on paper by Elissa Levy
Brooklyn Fire Proof, Inc. proudly presents 'Camoufleur', featuring digital
collaging, sculpture and works on paper by Elissa Levy. Levy's Camoufleur
series includes a room installation of photographs of camouflage fabric that
have been digitally collaged and 'painted' to heighten their optical
effects. The texture of the fabric is alternately included and omitted to
bring the viewer in and out of the design and also to transform the images
into a more ambiguous state. The amorphous forms that make up the original
camouflage pattern are restructured into one that repeats itself
symmetrically.
Camouflage evokes an apparent history of war, violence, hiding and
deception. Military units comprised of artists entitled 'camoufleurs' were
the original designers of the camouflage pattern. The camouflage pattern
was derived from forms in nature but also influenced by art movements like
cubism and ongoing theories about visual perception. Nature and culture
coexist in this genre of patterning. Yet reconfigured, camouflage evokes
other histories while retaining it's initial identity. This camoufleur
series makes new references to traditional woven blankets, mandalas,
kaleidoscopes, Rorschach tests, hallucinations and mirages.
In the felt cut-outs, Levy focuses on the man-made forms used in craft
stencils. The mass-produced forms originally produced as children¹s toys
are only suggestive of innocence and naiveté, being created from an adult
nostalgia of what childhood should be. Levy's cut-out utilizes soldiers.
Though impossible to remove their aggressive reference, especially in
present circumstances, etc, they are apparently infantilized. Yet what is
most noticeable about them is what is subtracted and abstracted. Their
superficial relationship to the camouflage is obvious and for Levy, the
cut-outs are akin to camouflage, and she chooses to use them as such.
Levy's work involves inverting, manipulating and transforming pre-existing
structures, objects and spaces with a desire to heighten awareness of them.
The awareness is not simply of what the subjects are, but what they can be.
This alternate reality could exist in the future, the past, or even in a
false memory. Through handling or mishandling, Levy wishes to accentuate
each object's inherent duplicity and the multiple readings it offers.
As signifiers, both forms can encompass so much more; they speak more to our
perceptions of them and how we have incorporated them into our everyday
lives. This is why I have turned towards the decorative arts my own
constructions, as it is what constantly surrounds us.
Opening Reception 7 PM Â 10 PM Friday, February 6
After party at Royal Oak, at corner of Richardson Street and Union Avenue.
Hours: Friday + Saturday 1-8 PM, and by appointment
Brooklyn Fire Proof, Inc.
718 302 4702
101 Richardon Street, Top Floor, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211