Mary Corey March

Primary Text

Mixed Media Participatory Installation: over-dyed hamoi silk, white linen, cotton thread, wood, sand, 200+ symbolic crayon drawings printed onto 400+ canvas squares, black canvas squares, people. 13' x 8 'x 8'/variable. (2011).

About

This piece was created by request for a show at the Textile Arts Center (Brooklyn) entitled "Play". It is an exploration of storytelling and language at its most elemental. It is part of my continuing exploration of how we define and share our experiences, and how others may interpret (and misinterpret) those stories. A simple symbol that everyone believes they understand can unpack to many meanings, and change meanings over and over again in different contexts and through different readers.

Action

Participants tell a personal story by selecting some of the hundreds of symbolic crayon drawings printed onto small canvas squares and weave them along a line in one of the three warps, followed by a black square to mark the end. The warps are filled and-re-filled with stories told not with writing, but with our earliest symbols for things.