Judith Shaw American

Lifelines, Judith Shaw's latest body of work, explores human interrelatedness with amorphous sculptural forms made from spent bicycle inner tubes. Constructed by threading wire through the inner tubes and crimping the skin-like material, the work becomes a frieze of loosely woven clusters of black pleated formations. The entwined strands create a chain of appendages, crevices, and craters, akin to roots and topographical masses. Each segment is malleable and resilient, with a cushiony, stretchy appearance. The contoured lines are reminiscent of borders and boundaries as well as arteries, veins, and viscera. The strong resemblance to umbilical attachments references personal lineage and the universality of human circuitry. Configurative relationships speak to what separates humanity as well as what connects us to ourselves, each other, and the natural landscape. Societal fragmentation, personal alienation, and dislocation are at the forefront.

Judith Shaw asks: What is common to humanity once the outer layers are removed, and an inner core revealed? Creating new forms from the misshapen scraps considers the possibility that a new ideal can unfold from the splintering of humankind. From rupture comes repair.