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Lena McGrath Welker – Navigation [chart]
Rock Creek Helzer Gallery
September 22 – November 12, 2008
This installation by Welker is part of a body of work in which the artist considers the ways in which we deal with issues of loss, grief and memory in our contemporary culture. The elements of [chart] suggest the tools of navigation, both emotional and temporal, that we seek by mapping the night sky. Elements include folios, large pierced drawings that resemble celestial maps, and stacks of glass tablets. Welker works with gampi – a delicate, translucent Japanese paper – to which she applies indigo dyes, folds, stitching, piercing and drawing.
In writing of her project, Welker noted that her goals with [chart] and the rest of her Navigation cycle are “to create a place of wonder, repose and contemplations, with work that can be felt but also filled with dense references, to provide intellectual stimulation.”
In support of Navigation, Welker has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY; from the Oregon Arts Commission and from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. She is a graduate of Reed College and the Pacific Northwest College of Art; and her work has been seen both locally and nationally, most recently at the Art Gym at Marylhurst University and at Reed College.