tapeworks

- by Mark Khaisman

Description

I work on the light easel, applying layers of translucent brown packing tape on clear Plexiglas panels. The tape is used as the most direct way of manipulating the light. I treasure the alchemy whereby a commonplace material is transformed into a fine art medium. My technique involves layering and intersecting; while doing it, I am contemplating on the layering and intersecting of universal and personal meanings and memories. People react to my tapes because it talks to them on many levels, starting from the very basic level of tactile feeling – almost everyone hold this tape in their hands, and is familiar with the sensation of striking a line with it. Many may almost feel it and hear the sound of adhesive being pulled off the roll. And then I build on it. I add the images, which are as familiar as the material itself. My tapes are about recognition: recognition of a tactile sensation, recognition of an image, recognition of a memory. They are very much play-it-again; it is the very essence of my work. When I work on the image, I try to keep it on that edge of almost falling apart, so that an eye of a viewer is given the challenge of assembling it in a recognizable shape. And after the first moment of visual recognition, the joy of a memory's recognition could come. At least that’s how I want it to be.