Fay Ray: Lacuna

The works in Lacuna amalgamate signs of land and sea. Returning to the High Desert in Southern California where the artist grew up, Ray has collected a variety of organic and non-organic material from the region. These artifacts are intimately linked to her familial past and serve as talismans. Each object is imbued with human touch, a specific location, and a certain passage of time, expanding the presence of these relics beyond their material properties. The artist gives equal attention to the industrial trucking equipment and metal scraps of her family’s multi-generational hauling trade, the woven baskets and abalone displays found in the homes of her youth, and to the corn, cacti, and seashells found naturally in the desert landscape. Ray’s objects are cast in aluminum, simultaneously immortalizing and memorializing these forms in a new material. Once preserved, these amulets are hand-fastened to sheet metal with the artist’s individually hand-formed chain links, leveling the symbol’s power through interchangeability, like charms on a bracelet.

Throughout the exhibition, moments of scale and material are met with spaciousness and lightness. The suspended and wall-mounted artworks of cast and machined aluminum are punctuated with natural materials such as stone, driftwood, and glass, and resemble an oversized body adornment such as a necklace, earring, or keychain. The razor-thin aluminum forms remain static, until a body, change in the viewer’s position, or slight gust of wind causes the pieces to move and turn––making them either voluminous, or virtually disappear.  Like a rotating mobile, certain formations allow the sculpture to take up space in multiple directions simultaneously, giving them dimension and highlighting their presence. Other configurations offer the same artwork the opportunity to utilize negative space, highlighting a void or the surrounding architecture.

The exhibition’s title derives from the Latin word for lake, and can be understood as a gap, vacancy, or absence that is made known through its surroundings. Just as a body of water indicates an unseen impression in the earth, a Lacuna is an absence that is only revealed through another presence. Similarly, throughout the exhibition, objects and forms that appear absent or concealed are later revealed. As the artworks turn or the viewer’s sight line moves, positive and negative spaces in the sculptures are presented with each change in position. In other artworks, absence is conjured through division. Singular metal forms are bisected so that their shapes are shared between sculptures, the halved material suggesting an enigmatic whole--like the sever of a pill along its groove, or the split of the sun as it slips past the horizon.