Quartering Myself
Ross Simonini
October 2 - November 15, 2014
Opening reception: October 2, 5 - 8 pm
Luxembourg - 13 Avenue de la Porte Neuve
SELECTED PRESS:
L'Essential
Shoot The Lobster Luxembourg is pleased to present Quartering Myself, an exhibition by Ross Simonini, on view from October 2 – November 15, 2014.
“I quarter myself to unlearn lopsided handedness–the sensation of the body's purposeful energy directed down a single appendage, into a single hand, between a thumb and forefinger and onto the tip of a bristle. I'm stopping the imbalanced, repetitive stress. Instead, the marks on these works speak for the full, bilateral, four-limbed body.
Favored unihandedness is excellent for the muscular control of handwriting, and it's true that most humans tend toward sidedness (a preference for one vertical half of the body over the other) but the other limbs also have contributions to make. Painting with a brush held between the hallux and long toe, for instance, produces a softer, fluffier mark, without the defined, refined intention of the right hand. Pedal muscles contain the skill of locomotion–not communication, not draughtsmanship–and I try to exercise them well.
I begin from an open athletic position: readied, relaxed, knees gently bent, eyes aimed forward. With my right hand, I make an arm-reach mark in the upper right quadrant. Without shifting position, I mark with the left hand in upper left quadrant, then the right foot, then the left foot–a reverse clockwise direction. I make four marks, in this manner, with a different color, on each day until the painting is complete. Could take 2 days, could take 23, could take 96. In fact, each of these periods of time is represented in Quartering Myself.”