Our brains filter and sort what we see to help us understand things. We edit out a plethora of information in order to clarify and organize the world. Carolyn Enz Hack is interested in the layers of information we edit out. What is left on the cutting-room floor may be unstructured, but it’s also fascinating and vital.
“Sowing Good Will” is a sculptural painting that sprang out of Hack’s interest in physics. She set out to follow a mathematical puzzle that addressed motion through space and the behavior of matter. She took a flat plane, in this instance a sheet of Japanese mulberry paper called kozo, cut openings in it, and then furled it back upon itself. The paper is still one piece but now exists in three dimensions, rippling through a gradation of color and complexity. Hack succeeds in conveying a strong sense of energetic dispersal in this piece, and she does this with no representation of external forms.
We have a natural tendency to label things, and so the piece might look like wings, or fire, or a Rorschach test. But abstraction strives to defy verisimilitude. Abstract art depends on the significance of color, form, texture, and spatial relationships, rather than representational forms, to convey what is real. It is a puzzle, and a beautiful one. As Hack says, “What we can’t see is the most important part.”
Carolyn Enz Hack may be reached through her website: carolynenzhack.com. A solo exhibition of her work will be at Studio Place Arts, Barre, Vermont, from April 26-May 28, 2016.