Within Reach Of The Intangible

This drawing is from a series of works that were in a show titled Breaking Open the Head. “The exhibition’s title, borrowed from writer Daniel Pinchbeck’s treatise on psychedelic shamanism, suggests the otherworldly qualities readily associated with my work. This is a reflection of the accretions of material and process. Stencil-like remnants of cut paper were used to make the sculptures and were laid down as templates; afterwards layers of spray paint and leafing were applied to the negative spaces left in their wake to demarcate the dense layers of grids that confuse foreground and background. I am interested in piling the layers so that the process is somewhat unreadable and the different histories blur in and out of focus. Through the traces of the visual histories of materials being put to use, my relationship to the material world is not defined by sheer pragmatism. Rather, it is how tangible things are capable of transporting us beyond ordinary experience, so that the intangible is just within reach. My titles are often elaborate, in this case it is referring to the visions one might see upon having an out of body, spiritual experience.”

Mindy Shapero will show along with Dan Rees and Daniel Lergon at Galerie Isa’s first group show Visions from Beyond: A Foray into Metaphysics and Materiality, at the gallery in Mumbai, from July 5 to September 30, 2013.