May 1–Dec 31, 2016
Sam Moyer [3]
Fishers Hinge
Carrera Marble, Steel, Concrete, and Beach Stones
About
Fishers Hinge is based on a very simple form of wood joinery called the box joint. This form, this commissure, brings two disjoint elements, disjoint materials, and disjoint forms together by means of an intersection, and in this joining makes each element, material, and form stronger; both as disparate individuals and as a conjoined formed.
The sculpture pursues and magnifies this gesture in materials outside of wood. Holding true to the engineering of a box joint, the overall structure is created and supported, by the connection of the separate sections. It is reciprocal.
The marble is a cast-off, or remnant from a damaged slab of Carrera, manufactured for interior, domestic use- most likely decorative. The concrete wall was built on site, using stones, and found debris from the beaches of Fishers. It's an industrial construction, meant to represent exterior function. And though the marble is a natural stone fabricated into a decorative state and the concrete wall is a man-made object of natural things, rendered for function, it’s all the same; all rock from the earth in different forms. In coming together, these elements shrug off identity and function and become useless, except in their support of each other.
The polarity of the man-made v. the natural, form v. function, is echoed in the physicality of the work in space. Upon approach from the parking lot (land) the structure feels closed off, but upon approach from the water, it is wide open. It is both physically inclusive and exclusive, both public and private. The work is also positioned to have a relationship with the sun. When one side is in silhouette or shadow, the opposite side is harnessing or reflecting the light.
Artist
Bio
Since 2008, Sam Moyer has developed a distinctive language of abstraction that considers questions of value, labor and beauty. Her practice has evolved from its more conceptual and process-based origins to address formal and theoretical issues regarding the construct of painting. Examining traditional roles of painting and sculpture, Moyer reframes the painted surface as a sculptural field in which fragments of previously used stone are paired with hand-painted canvas to create dynamic compositions. She manipulates these found textures and materials into powerful and evocative abstract works that evince beauty, humor, balance and chance, employing the hand-made and readymade.
Sam Moyer’s works are included in prominent collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Morgan Library, New York; the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; The Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; and the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, MA. Moyer has exhibited her work at The Drawing Center, New York; The Bass Museum, Miami, FL; University of Albany Art Museum, New York; The Public Art Fund, New York; White Flag Projects and The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO; LAND, Los Angeles; and Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm. Moyer has participated in important group exhibitions including, “Inherent Structure,” Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; “Painting/Object,” The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; "Greater New York" and “Between Spaces” at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens. In 2018 she was the subject of a solo presentation at “Art Basel Unlimited”.
Sam Moyer received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design; her MFA from Yale; and she lives and works in Brooklyn.