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White, wall-mounted case containing 1,296 acrylic-painted wooden cubes (each cube painted half white and half black)
Signed, dated and titled, verso
At first, all cubes turned so white half facing out, black half concealed.
Working instructions:
“Choosing randomly, turn cubes so black side facing out.
When all cubes black: Choosing randomly, turn cubes so white side facing out.
When all cubes white: Choosing randomly, turn cubes so black side facing out…
If unsure whether cubes turning black or white, choose.”
Notes:
Instructions as much part of installation as other elements
Audience does not always follow instructions/interprets instructions; this is part of the art.
(Inventory #31558)
Installation: approximately 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 inches (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm)
Nine, white, wall-mounted cases, each 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (31.8 x 31.8 x 4.4 cm) with each case containing 81 acrylic-painted wooden cubes with each cube being 7/8 x 7/8 x 7/8 inches (2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2 cm) (729 cubes total)
Signed and dated on back of one case in graphite
Image/paper size: 5 1/2 x 14 inches (14 x 35.6 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35201)
Image/paper size: 5 1/2 x 14 inches (14 x 35.6 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35205)
Image/paper size: 2 1/2 x 10 inches each (6.4 x 25.4 cm each)
(Inventory #30775)
Over the course of a year, Curtis took video of 99 people including herself. She asked each to count from 1 to 100 at the same pace. Curtis gently squeezed each participant’s ankle 100+ times to convey the pace, then merged/super-imposed all 99 video clips to start at the same moment, all saying “one” simultaneously.
Duration: 2:44
Edition of 9
Signed and numbered on accompanying certificate
(Inventory #28543)
1,520 spruce posts, acrylic, oil paint, audience
10.6.12-10.26.12
In 1998, Amy Stacey Curtis began an 18-year commitment to art-making, a project which would culminate through 9 solo-biennial exhibits from the year 2000 to the year 2016. In the end, Curtis will have installed 81 large-in-scope interactive installation and new-media works in the vast mills of 8 or 9 Maine, USA towns. Each solo-biennial exhibit is a 22-month process, each exhibit exploring a different theme while requiring audience to perpetuate its multiple installations. “Without participants my work is incomplete.” The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 Individual Artist Fellow for Visual Art, Curtis has committed to this temporary sculptural work to convey that we are a part of a whole, that everyone and everything is connected and affects.
1,520 spruce posts, acrylic, oil paint, audience
10.6.12-10.26.12
Alternate View
Before opening, Curtis installed posts in convex form. Using floor chart provided, audience transferred wood, transforming installation into concave form. Once concave form generated, installation was complete. (form at start of exhibit: 47.5″x156″x156″; form at end of exhibit: 47.5″x156″x156″)
1,080 plotter-paper cores, wood, conduit, audience
10.4.8-10.24.8
From Curtis’ EXPERIENCE and MOVEMENT, audience viewed tubes from far away, inches away, moving side to side, up and down, back and forth…Perception of light moved and changed with each participant’s perspective. (144″x84″x36″)
99 hourglasses, pedestal, labels, audience
10.9.10-10.28.10
One hourglass for each hour of biennial on 64-foot-long pedestal, Curtis inverted first hourglass at 12pm on October 9, 2010, marking start of exhibit. Subsequent hourglasses were inverted successively by Curtis and participants, one per exhibit hour. (each hourglass: 7″x4″; pedestal: 48″x12″x768″)
99 hourglasses, pedestal, labels, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10
Alternate View
(installation shot from “Arise: Summer Group Show” at The Barbara Krakow Gallery, June 23-July 28, 2012).
Over the course of 3 months, Curtis asked 99 people to draw a 1-inch line without using a ruler, then a 2-inch line…through 12 inches. Then, she sorted these 1,188 drawings–99 people’s 1 inch, 99 people’s 2 inches…from the shortest length to the longest length. The first drawing uses the 99 people’s perceptions of 1 inch, the second drawing uses the 99 people’s perceptions of 2 inches… For each drawing, Curtis translated the perceived measurements into concentric squares. There are 99 centered squares per drawing, all 12 drawings on 22.5″x22.5″ 140lb archival paper.
9 cd players with headphones, 9 cds, tape, audience, 10.7.6-10.27.6
Each participant asked to choose and listen to one of 9 cd players… (each player: 1″x6″x6″; each path: 576″x12″)
9 cd players with headphones, 9 cds, tape, audience, 10.7.6-10.27.6
Alternate View
glass, water, metal, plastic, droppers, audience, 7.7.0-8.15.0
Audience maintained nine menisci for duration of exhibit, adding water to installation when necessary. (72″x14″x6″)
glass, water, metal, plastic, droppers, audience, 7.7.0-8.15.0
Alternate View
1,080 slate tiles, acrylic, audience, 10.6.12-10.26.12
Before opening, Curtis installed tiles white-side-up in a 20×54 configuration. Audience each walked upon tiles to pause upon any single white tile of choice. Then, he or she flipped this tile before walking upon tiles to exit installation. Once all tiles inverted, or once exhibit ended–whichever came first–installation complete. (.25″x297″x807″, 20×54 configuration; each tile: ~.25″x12″x12″)
1,080 slate tiles, acrylic, audience, 10.6.12-10.26.12
Alternate View
9 chairs, 9 timers, wood, drywall, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10
Participants entered each of up to nine booths, attempting to remain in first booth for one minute, second booth for two minutes, third booth for three minutes, through to ninth booth for nine minutes. Each booth had optional count-up timer for those interested in accuracy. If participants chose to participate in all nine booths, and were accurate, they were in booths total of 45 minutes. (each booth: 96″x48″x48″)
9 chairs, 9 timers, wood, drywall, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10
Alternate View
86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience
10.9.10-10.28.10
Curtis crocheted hour every day for year; tying yarn together from 36 large skeins so continuous. Starting October 9, participants removed yarn from form, placing undone yarn into plexiglas box. Installation was complete once “undone” or once biennial ended at 5pm, October 28–whichever came first. (form at start of exhibit: .25″x108″x864″; plexiglas box: 16″x16″x84″)
Photo by Luc Demers
86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience
10.9.10-10.28.10
Alternate View
86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10
Photo by Kathryn Bean Davis
Alternate View
36 mirrors, duct tape, fishing line, audience, 10.4.8-10.24.8
Audience instructed to walk slowly between two rows of mirrors where they observed their undulating infinite reflections. (78″x60″x756″; each mirror 12″x48″)
36 mirrors, duct tape, fishing line, audience, 10.4.8-10.24.8
Alternate View
Amy Stacey Curtis (born 1970, Beverly, Massachusetts) is an installation artist focusing on participatory works. The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 and 2017 Individual Artist Fellow For Visual Art and the recipient of numerous grants including those from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Curtis has exhibited interactive art internationally.
Curtis initiates each of her works which are then perpetuated and resolved by audience. For each installation, Curtis instigates a desired vision through provided guidance. Then, by relinquishing these concepts to her collaborative audience, her work sometimes proceeds in unanticipated ways. These uncontrollable unknowns are likewise crucial components of her work.
From 1998 to 2016, Curtis completed an 18-year project, 9 solo-biennial exhibits of large-in-scope, interactive art in 9 vast mill spaces throughout Maine. In the end, Curtis mounted 81 participatory installations while cleaning by hand each historic space (averaging 25,000 square feet). Each solo biennial was a 22-month process exploring a different, predetermined theme, inviting audience to activate each exhibit’s 9 unique works.
After Curtis’s 18-year project was finished, she had been working toward new interactive projects for 5 weeks in her studio, when she was debilitated by a neurological illness. After 2 psychiatric wards, the start of severe movement and speech disorder, and 15 months of unknowns, it was finally determined that Curtis’s brain had been attacked by untreated Lyme Disease.
Since the start of her disability in March 2017, Curtis has been moving forward and exhibiting new interactive concepts with help from assistants, curators, and the arts community. Curtis works from Lyman, Maine.
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