April 15th - September 28th
On view now! Come visit the Museum of Sonoma County and see the unveiled exhibit launching Sara Downing’s +FORM; a series of 3 dimensional photographic sculptures. The first of the series features a combination of 7 panels, 2 of them featuring photographs felted into wool and will be on display in the Window Gallery at the Museum on the corner of 7th and B streets all summer, AND lit up each night into the wee hours of the morning!
In coordination with the SR Public Art program, and Out There Santa Rosa, The piece will be viewable from the street for all to see, so get out and about, enjoy downtown and celebrate summer in Sonoma County!
+FORM the concept, has been 2+ years in the making. The first series of ideas came to me in the fall of 2018 when I started a design and install project for a commercial client, and realized that project contained the beginnings of something much bigger and more rewarding than I ever could have imagined when I started my full time artistic practice in early 2018.
Combining my love of photography, building things with my hands, constantly exploring new technology and unfamiliar materials is the essence of this endeavor.
This initial piece, the first in a series of new photographic sculptures offers a distinct way of experiencing the photographic image and hopefully allows each viewer to think about the photographic medium a little differently. The felt process you are seeing in the Window Gallery is made possible by state-of-the-art printing on a specially coated Belgian linen to retain maximum quality and depth of the photograph. Once the image is printed, it is essentially sandwiched between varying layers and thickness of sheeps’ wool. It is first needle felted and tacked by hand to achieve desired results. Details are added, and lastly the full panel is run through a large factory-style felting machine with a geared I-beam teeming with hundreds of needles moving up and down repeatedly through the artwork which bind the wool layers and the linen together firmly.
I’m not very big on explaining my work’s personal meaning as I prefer to let the work speak to each viewer uniquely, however I will say that my efforts here involve the visual and physical deconstructing of buildings printed on smooth material and are in direct contrast with the trees embedded in the wool panels. This small Coral Bark Maple tree in my backyard provides a full winter of extreme, almost unnatural colors and during the pandemic it seemingly begged for my attention. I took several photos of this single tree and constructed new and unique trees from the various images. Deconstruct, construct. Smooth + manmade vs. rough + organic. I adore contrasts in our world, and I keep highlighting them because I think it’s important to fully recognize that contrasts are essential for our human understanding of things. There is no joy without grief, no reference for smooth without rough. The fullness of our life must include all manner of contrasting phenomenon.