Krysten Cunningham

3 to 4, 2011

3 to 4, Cunningham’s video is the center of a new body of work that continues her investigation of time, space and perception. Cunningham’s sculptures have combined high and low materials and theories, such as spare parts from a physics lab (where she works, at UCLA) and hand-dyed textiles, referencing the Bauhaus and ‘crafts’. In an exploration of the otherwise unperceivable 4th spatial dimension, the artist ignores our rigid notions of physics in favor of haptic or intuitive ways of perceiving space. Working backwards from the video, literally deconstructing the costumes into yarn-like textile strips, Cunningham creates ‘paintings’ by weaving the textiles into unique patterns mounted on pegboard backing panels. The weaving is an analogue to the video of the depiction of three-dimensional space in two dimensions, and suggests the sophisticated communicative powers of textiles by sources as varied as the Inca, the Quakers, and Anni Albers.