Volume Too
October 11th - November 15th 2008
A Bridge Over a Deep Gorge (night), 2008, Mylar, tape, watercolor, silkscreen, cork, 32 x 42 inches
For Volume Too, Gorum exhibits selections from her well-traveled sketchbooks as well as what she refers to as "Tapings", large landscapes created using a wide variety of ’Äútapes": such as hardware store varietals, custom manufactured editions, vinyl, and handmade silkscreen-textured adhesive panels.
The Tapings, assembled upon translucent drafting film embellished with ink and watercolor, draw on themes of fantastical urbanity and its tenuous relationship to the natural landscape. What makes these collage pieces so intriguing is Raylene’Äôs knowledge and confidence in Architectural draftsmanship.
"Volume Too" is a series of such Tapings in which Gorum engages in a dialogue with the acclaimed Japanese woodblock print artist, Hiroshige. Both artists 'draw with a knife', producing their works by precise cutting (he to wood, she to tape), and share a celebration of color. Gorum quotes compositions from Hiroshige's prints of travelers in Edo period Japan, exchanging villagers with modern characters in distorted American vistas.
A Bay Area native, Raylene Gorum studied architecture at California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo and at Ecole d'Architecture Vals de Marne in Paris. She presently lives and works in New York City.
artist's website: www.raylenegorum.com