JUNE WAYNE・Art + Science
The Terrestrial Works
Earthquakes
“Wayne addressed the global and galactic cycles at work in three-dimensional abstract collage paintings. Her “Earthquake” series brings the rupture of solid ground closest to home. Acrylic and styrene crusts on mahogany panels suggest a scattering and an ad hoc arrangement of elements.”
Small Shock
Temblor
Sneaking Up on Red
Slip
Northridge
“Venturing into the rubble around my bed, my mind went racing. Am I hurt? Is the studio destroyed? Where shall I go? By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, a whole new life became a possibility. It was quite exhilarating. I was getting ‘rid of my stuff’. But when daylight came, ‘my stuff’ came back to me. there was a lot of breakage but the damage wasn’t structural. My adrenaline rush was gone; to put something back the way it was isn’t as exciting as making something new. The quake, by being kind to me, destroyed my newfound possibilities.”
Shiver
“Wayne devised her own highly textured surfaces from styrene modules used for packing and shipping crates, the ubiquitous styrofoam ‘peanut’. Easily cut, shaped, glued and painted, these modules allowed her to compose fields combining uniformity and variety, ideally suited to her series on earthquakes. They also continued her tradition of using the most commonplace objects to achieve uncommon aesthetic effects.”
“Earthquakes are a part of life in Southern California. In the period during which these paintings were made, the area suffered seven significant quakes, culminating in the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake on 17 January 1994, the strongest ever recorded in an urban setting in North America”
Am
Slight Disturbance
Olivero