Paper size: 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (57.2 x 57.2 cm)
(Inventory #24388)
The artist formulated the suite of drawings by first asking 99 people to freehand draw twelve lines, each on a separate piece of paper and each one being for a different length between one and twelve inches. Curtis then took the 99 unique drawings for each length, turned each length into a concentric square and then overlaid all 99 squares for each measurement. Each drawing in this suite displays 99 people’s different(however minute the difference) impressions of each length. The first drawing is “one inch”, the second is “two inch” squares, all the way to”twelve inch” squares. The variation in darkness in each drawing is the best indicator of similarities between individuals shared perceptions of length.
Paper size: 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (57.2 x 57.2 cm)
(Inventory #24388)
The artist formulated the suite of drawings by first asking 99 people to freehand draw twelve lines, each on a separate piece of paper and each one being for a different length between one and twelve inches. Curtis then took the 99 unique drawings for each length, turned each length into a concentric square and then overlaid all 99 squares for each measurement. Each drawing in this suite displays 99 people’s different(however minute the difference) impressions of each length. The first drawing is “one inch”, the second is “two inch” squares, all the way to”twelve inch” squares. The variation in darkness in each drawing is the best indicator of similarities between individuals shared perceptions of length.
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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