Sarah Hulsey: Source Material (2023)

May 31–July 2, 2023

Solo Exhibition
Bromfield Gallery
450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118

Statement

My work is concerned with the architecture that underpins language, which we use effortlessly but with little awareness of its beauty and complexity. Even a simple sentence has layers and layers of organization, governed by a complex set of rules and interactions happening below the level of our conscious knowledge. Small pieces of information (atomic components, as it were) combine into ever larger units within the concurrent linguistic systems at play. These components are organized into elegant structures that exist only in the mind. In my artwork, I analyze these structures and create visual correlates, looking for poetry and resonance in the rich patterns that emerge.

I compose abstract frameworks by building up nested and connected forms set within reticulated grids. Networks of these grids serve as armatures on which small elements abut, merge, and grow into higher order objects. In these pages, the underlying structures of sentences are segmented, excerpted, and then recombined into forms reflecting their core, essential relationships.

The interconnected systems of language—sound, structure, meaning—are suggested by multiple layers in the pieces. There is alternating tension and harmony between the strata, created by the relation of rectilinear elements to shapes derived from circles and curves. Diagrammatic layers interact with notational markings, sound waves, crystalline forms, and schematic objects, each stratum suggesting distinct but interrelated levels of universal grammar. My work draws attention to linguistic patterns deep in our minds and their complex, hidden beauty.

Works in the exhibition