Proposed artwork for: southXeast: Contemporary southeastern art

Artist Statement:

I am multimedia artist whose work examines organic processes of transformation. Breathing and life systems of the body are recurrent themes, as are water and time, with elements of decay, chance, and shifts of reality. The result is lyrical, nature-based biomorphic abstraction.

Many works are site specific. The Airplayer series with its blower boxes changes with each location, augmented by painted, cast shadows and layers of projection. Marking Landscape is about growth, change, meditation and contradiction. My drawings and paintings are involved with the transforming of materials—the result builds a calligraphic movement mirroring the changing organic processes.

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Airplayer XVI, 2022 (two images)

Berry College, Moon Gallery, Rome, GA
Sprayed abaca forms, embedded plastic hosing, blower boxes,
relay switching, interior lighting, video projection
Size: 8’ x 17’ x 15’

Large leaf-like sprayed abaca and cotton forms, embedded with plastic hoses, connect to blower boxes or the floor. The boxes contain squirrel cage blowers, operated by a microcontroller that rhythmically gives movement to the forms, which evoke plant life. Ocean sound is layered into the piece, and video projected shadows move across the forms—shifting color and adding texture.

2022 Video of SARA GARDEN ARMSTRONG: Threads and Layers at Berry College

Airplayer XV, 2021 (two images)

FATVillage Project Space, Fort Lauderdale, FL
abaca and cotton forms, hoses, metal, wood, blowers, microcontroller, digitized sound, video projection
Size: 10’ x 20’ x 8’

Giant leaf-like sprayed abaca and cotton forms, embedded with plastic hoses, connect to blower boxes or the floor. The boxes contain squirrel cage blowers, operated by a microcontroller that rhythmically gives movement to the forms, which evoke plant life. Ocean sound is layered into the piece, and projection images onto the forms—shifting color and adding texture.

Marking Landscape 6, 2021 (two images)

Abaca fiber, light-emitting diode (LED), custom controller    

Size: 8’ x 20’ x 10’

This site-specific landscape is about growth, change, meditation, and the never-ending shifts of realities. Abaca forms with LED lighting move through them. The LED runs have the same color light yet appear different because of the color changes of the forms and the length of the runs—referencing our diversity and alikeness.

2021 Video of SARA GARDEN ARMSTRONG: Threads and Layers at FATVillage Project Space

Braided Stream, 2018

Acrylic medium, pigmented abaca fiber, kozo, aluminum, and plastic tubing
Size: 42” x 35” x 36”

Kozo and abaca fibers are layered into a transparent acrylic medium that becomes an interwoven thread, in effect creating a moist transparent skin that evokes growth and connectedness while also referencing water. The shadows play to the continuing linear movement.

Time Mapping, 2021 (two images)

Pigment and abaca fiber on paper

3 drawings each 8’ x 44”,
Installation 10’ x 12’ x 6’ 

The drawings leave the wall to create a three-dimensional hanging sculpture, intercepting and articulating the space, asking the viewer to be an active part of the work. Pigmented fiber stains the paper, bleeding to the other side, as I work on both sides of the paper. I am using pigments for papermaking and working with bleeding, drying, and mixing the color on the paper.

Time Mapping Installation #3, #7, #2, #11, 2021

Poole Gallery, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL

Pigment and abaca fiber on paper
Each drawing 60” x 40”
Installation 7’ x 16’

The drawings are overlapping to form a time mapping of the terrain. I am working with bleeding, drying, layering the pigment on both surfaces to explore the landscape with the paper.

Paintings: work from two series, Murmuring Landscape, 2018 and Layered-scape, 2021 - 2022

My recent paintings use transparency, mapping, and layering. The concerns of the work are fundamental: control/loss of control, fluidity/presence, and change/exploration. Pigment and pigmented fibers in liquid are poured onto raw canvas lying flat in a plastic tray—in effect using stain, fiber and collage of fiber as the paint. The process goes through periods of manipulation and drying—some layers are removed, leaving a history, others are added—the result builds a calligraphic movement mirroring changing organic processes and materials.

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