Shirley Shor : Grid

July 22 - Sept 23, 2005

To follow Shor’s computer generated grid of brightly colored lines in motion is to consider the endless network of paths people travel throughout each day. Dan Cameron, Curator of the New Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition Living Inside the Grid, writes, “The inhabited grid has become an irreducible sign of the world we live in. From our morning commutes…to the last check of our emails at night, we operate in an overlapping network of grids.” Grid challenges viewers’ perceptions of space, time and boundaries with its constantly evolving patterns. Often, lines are seen as a way to include, exclude or divide, though Shor’s constantly shifting lines transcend such associations to elicit the experience of borderless movement.

Using lines to create fluidity, Shor strives to construct liquid architecture through her continuously changing systems. Despite its introspective nature, there is also an element of whimsy present in Grid. As Shor says, “My work is about the playful vitality of spaces that are defined by movement.” Using real-time computer software, Grid suggests a possible topography which alludes to the temporality of space and the randomness that exists inside systems that appear to be orderly.