Tara Donovan Sculpts Life from the Mundane
Medium, Space and Experience Play Key Roles in Donovan's Work
Objects such as plastic straws, Styrofoam cups and tape are often overlooked as merely quotidian objects that feed the needs of society. In the mind of Tara Donovan, such materials become the basis of her large-scale installations. Donovan’s pieces emerge as she accumulates these materials in large quantities and arranges them in organic patterns that suggest both vast landscapes and microscopic structures. There is a delicate balance between planned and serendipitous formation; as curator Paul Brewer says of her work, “the final form evolves from the innate properties and structures of the material itself.”
Donovan’s work is also dependent on the space it inhabits. The exhibition space becomes a key player in the formation of her works rather than a room meant simply to house art. Everything from the lighting to the available footage is taken into account, and Donovan’s pieces morph to fit that space. The result is a newfound relationship between exhibition space and art, and a piece that has developed a sense of individuality and personality that lay dormant until receiving Donovan’s touch.
The viewer is a key player in Donovan’s work as well, as seen in “Haze” (2003). Hundreds of thousands of drinking straws convene on a wall, stacked perpendicularly in varying lengths. The undulating shapes, paired with the cylindrical construction and translucent material of the individual straws, create a unique visual experience for the onlooker. Depending on how one views the piece, the forms in “Haze” seem to expand and recede in a misty vapor. Gallery visitors often end up winding back and forth to watch the piece transform.
The viewing experience is quite different but equally astounding in “Transplanted” (2001), a macabre landscape constructed of stacks of tar paper. The piece covers much of the floor in the room it inhabits and forms an uneasy terrain reminiscent of charred land or alien territory. Viewers slowly circle the piece, looking down upon the adumbral scene splayed out before them. From a distance, the viewers become part of the piece, hunched figures slowly crossing a desolate panorama with no visible purpose or destination. A new layer of emotion is added by these unsuspecting gallery-goers, and simple stacks of paper suddenly become more than a cheap construction tool.
Both pieces represent an artist whose breadth of creative force is astounding. Her work incorporates multiple planes and very different media, from light, transparent plastic to dense construction materials. They elicit vastly different responses from their viewers while acting as catalysts for a unique viewing experience that is both emotional and physical.
Such pieces have given Donovan growing recognition and accolades in the art world. In September 2008 Donavan was one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Award, which is bestowed upon “people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis,” according to the Foundation’s president, Jonathan F. Fanton. This accomplishment came just weeks before the opening of her latest exhibit at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art on October 10. The show will run until January 4, 2009.
Tara Donovan
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Tara Donovan
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