Alexandra McCurdy, Blue Box with Copper Wire, 2020

Alexandra McCurdy, Blue Box with Copper Wire, 2020

porcelain, copper wire

2020

Artist Statement

Blue Box with Copper Wire was made upon my arrival home from a holiday in Florida, in self-isolation, followed by social distancing, mask-wearing, and artistic deprivation. I was ALONE in my studio using porcelain grids, fabricated by layering colored liquid porcelain in a complicated warp and weft pattern to simulate weaving. Slowly knotting the copper wire into the grids took two months to complete. The box itself connotes being isolated, contained, "boxed in", and ALONE. 

The copper wire is ambiguous. It could represent the virus trying to penetrate the box, or the virus escaping. When the box is placed in the sunlight, the copper wire lights up and looks as if it's on fire. As I worked away on this project, I was constantly made aware of the virus, its spread, how many people had died, had caught it, were in the hospital on ventilators. I felt as if I was actually ALONE inside Blue Box with Copper Wire myself.

Alexandra McCurdy

copyright, Alexandra McCurdy

sculpture (porcelain, copper wire)