Annette Cords “Shape/Shifters”

Project: ARTspace

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Curated by Jill Conner

Project: ARTspace presents Shape/Shifters by Annette Cords, a solo exhibition that presents new tapestries and paintings along with an exploration of the depths and limits of the grid. As conveyed through her paintings, the ongoing intersections of color are central to each work. Cords’ tapestries, moreover, embody the process of communication and show the connection of distant points along a vast network.

The artworks selected provide a brief survey on the construction of patterns with color. Based upon the artist’s choice of weft, the subject matter and the composition’s foreground can dramatically differ. The large-scale nature of Signal not only dominates visually because of its extensive volume of gestural forms, but the frayed threads that appear in the margins reveal the range of vibrant colors that were selected to create what one would easily think of as a mostly black-and-white representation.

The moving image is a highlight of InBetween, which shows fragments of posters, writing and stickers horizontally that are then edited into a stuttering, vertical line. In smaller pieces such as Double Fantasy and Sisters one side appears as a totally separate work of art, when compared to the composition that appears on the reverse side.

With a close focus on layering, Annette Cords combines altered photographic reproductions within traditional weaving patterns. In light of the nature of interconnected thread lines, the artist’s representations of urban mark-making fade into different shades of hue, renewing the significance of color and its role in shaping content. Similar to woven patterns, graffiti disappears as soon as it appears, making the act of weaving one of rebellion.

Shape/Shifters reconsiders the core elements of Josef Albers’ seminal text titled “On the Interaction of Color” (1963) with respect to the interrelationship that exists between color, perception and movement. Just as graffiti disrupts the complacency of architectural form, Cords’ insertion of image into the process of warp and weft poses a challenge of the traditional Jacquard loom. Shape/Shifters presents the ongoing attempt of image and color to achieve a sense of clarity while faced with ever-changing color interactions.

Annette Cords was born in the North of Germany and raised in Hamburg, and currently lives in New York City. Cords’ recent Jacquard tapestries series investigate how we read and decipher visual information in order to construct meaning and navigate our everyday environment. Recent solo exhibitions include Breaking the Grid at Kang Contemporary in Berlin; Sideways, New York Public Library; Diamond Days, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, Germany; Turnarounds, AxD Gallery, Philadelphia; and Cross-Coupling, Posie Kviat Gallery, Hudson, NY. Her work has appeared in group shows at venues including the Brunswiker Pavilion, The Drawing Center, Lacey & Phillips Gallery, Odetta Gallery, Kentler International Drawing Space, MASS MoCA, Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, Michael Steinberg Fine Art, the Queens Museum and Flux Factory. She has been the recipient of grants and residencies including a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a Change Inc, Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship. www.annettecords.net