Interface

In both the Interface and Interface/Interstice installations, commonplace materials form something substantial, to reveal the unexpected and beautiful found in the mundane through the vehicle of one’s imagination.  These formalist yet playful constructions utilize repetitive texture, color, transparency, and shadow, imitating organic forms found in nature (like underwater flora and the scales of fish and reptiles).  Flat material becomes voluminous; the size of the work begins to relate to the viewer’s body.  Coit builds up, tears down, and reconstructs the sculptures.  Shapes are made in shadows and light penetrates mesh to become projections on the wall.  This treatment creates charged interfaces.

“When combined in installations that feature newspaper…these ruffled petticoats morph into something else, schools of fish and clusters of coral—what Coit has referred to at times as “accidental species”—that dance ambiguously, rising up and slipping down while never actually moving.…Like shadows that move and change according to the time of day as well as the weather, Coit’s installations have become increasingly intentionally unstable, a creative way to hold onto and embrace, rather than shy away from the aspects of life that were never under our control.” - Jennie Hirsh, from “Before and After Language: The Art of Madelin Coit”