Clare Strand

Flatland and Spaceland showing in Aipad with Brancolini Grimadli.

New York

2013.

Flatland and Spaceland, Strand has taken traditionally processed photographic paper and then cut and folded it to make the three-dimensional and two-dimensional artworks on display. This physical construction of the objects is intentionally visible in the works and confounds the, now commonplace, digital production of photography and sculpture through 3D printing, Photoshop and myriad other computer-driven production methods. The outcomes of these manual processes mirror Strand’s most recent works, relying on faults to signal authenticity and serendipity to reveal her belief in the power and possibilities of happenstance.

The inspiration for the works on display is taken from Edwin Abbot Abbot’s1884 satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The narrator is a humble square, a member of the social caste of gentlemen and professionals in a society of geometric figures, who guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. He is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This Sphere visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland.