It
was the day of the Brooklyn wide-open studio when I visited Yasmin Spiro. As she was participating in the event,
her works are presented nicely in her studio in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. When I entered her space, I sensed an
earthy organic scent. It was her large sculpture created with woven jute. It
looks like a Rococo style skirt, which was hung from the ceiling at the height
of a tall woman’s waist. It is slightly larger than life size, yet is not
overwhelming. I could imagine a woman’s torso sitting on it. It was striking to
have a simultaneous impact of vision and scent. A few minutes after she opened
her studio window, the scent went away.
It
was clear that her signature material is woven jute. She showed me her video piece,
which was projected on a woven jute. The image of the video is taken from her
trip to Jamaica where she spent her childhood. She took videos of an old
railroad near Kingston. As a child, she went there, but she said she remembered
some scenes differently. She told me how our memory was fragile and sometimes
not reliable, which I totally agree with. Most of the video show a perspective
of a person riding on the back of a moving train, looking over the railroad
running between green bushes and trees. The video was also taken through the clear
vinyl sheet during rain, so the image is slightly distorted with the running
water over the vinyl sheet. It is a nostalgic scene to everyone, although the viewer
has more than likely never been there. Despite her specific choice of location,
the imagery appears rather anonymous. Yet, it is probably why anybody can feel connected to
the imagery. The effect of the woven jute is very interesting. The image looks
like a detail picture of a painting on canvas, which transforms the image to a
dream like, ambiguous landscape. The effect of the rain and saturated colors
makes the image look like an impressionist painting.
She
was also working on her new drawing project; maps of imaginary cities. She
prints the woven jute on her drawings by painting the jute and presses it
against paper. She uses these prints as a ground or a part of the maps of the
drawings. The limited pallet of red, gold, and black, leads the viewer to pay
attention to details of her drawings.
From
the works she showed me either on her laptop or in person, I asked her if she
was interested in making an installation. She told me about her idea of a small
scale, interactive piece. We agreed to keep in contact about the piece till she
comes up with a solid vision for the work. I believe her new work will be great
to show the diversity of tART artists in the exhibition.
