Eve Wood

Midnight Caesura at Jaus

Jaus

11851 La Grange Ave. 
Los Angeles, CA, 90025 

by appointment only 

tel: 424.248.0781
email: info@jausart.com 

Midnight Caesura 

Featuring: Julie Adler, Tanya Batura, Seth Kaufman, Eve Wood, Jody Zellen

Curated by Eve Wood

Closing Reception: Sunday May 19, 5pm to 8pm

Dates: April 5 to May 19, 2013 by appointment only

1.   You have worked in so many creative capacities, as a writer, an artist, a critic, a curator. In this latest show at Jaus, “Midnight Caesura”, you have wonderfully combined all of your skills. Can you talk a little about how you combine your practices to make the show happen?

 I suppose I think of myself first and foremost as an artist, and that has certainly been my predominant practice for many years, but the idea of what an artist “is” has evolved, out of necessity I think and the changing dynamics of commerce and the way our world is transforming, and it is no longer possible to simply make good work for the sake of itself, but there is, I feel, an inherent narrative that demands we look at things differently – more of inclusive process than one of exclusion, so I wanted I suppose to give back to the community and to these specific artists whom I’ve believed in for many years. There is not enough gratitude or graciousness in today’s art world. We are all in this together after all.  

2.     What is the significance of the title?

Ichiro Irie, the owner and director of Jaus asked that I make the title into a color in keeping with the last several shows he’d put on, so “midnight” is a reference to blue. The work in the show is all about what is unspoken, mysterious, indistinct, and a caesura is a poetic term that means a break or pause in language.

Eve Wood in front of her sculptures at Jaus

3.     How did you select the artwork for the show?

All of the artists in the show are people I’ve admired for years, and I was fairly familiar with their work. I wanted to show work that had never been exhibited before, or at least not more than once, and coincidentally all of the works had that in common. I was looking for a formal sense of mystery, an uncanny quality I guess you could call it; I hope that all the work in the show appear connected but not literally, metaphorically perhaps.

4.     Your own work changed radically this year can you talk about the change from painting to sculpture?

My first love is sculpture and my MFA thesis show at Cal Arts were all sculptures. I have always had a multi disciplinary practice, which I know is not in vogue now, but I make things all the time. When I was with Western Project, I was encouraged simply to paint to the exclusion of the objects, so I moved away from that for awhile. Its about connections, whether in paint or sculptural material, for me the leap is the same.

5.     Jaus is such a beautiful “home gallery” the feeling of the space is very ethereal did the space itself lend itself to particular aesthetic decisions?

I didn’t want the show to appear crowded or overhung, and so I had to really consider the spatial dynamics carefully. I love the natural light from the side windows and that, I suppose, provides its own sense of the mysterious, so I think finally the work was supported by the space.

Six, poems by Eve Wood, Cherry Grove Press 2005

6.     I am a fan of your poetry and the title of the show reminds me a lot of one of your poems. Could you write me a poem? (This is a purely selfish question!) Did you write a poem for the show? I really want to publish a poem here.

I appreciate that very much, but no I didn’t write a poem specifically for the show, however I have been working for the last two years on a book of poetry based on contemporary visual artists and here is a recent one :

Joan Mitchell Gazing Out At A Pasture With No Cows In It

There is death in everything

And celebration.

A hesitant sun

Charts its way across a hazy sky,

Breaks through the clouds like a single narrowing finger,

Barely warms the road ahead.

Even the natural world has opinions,

Takes sides,

Starving the west field in favor of the east,

Though tomorrow things could be different.

Today the cows lift their puzzle-skinned bodies

Out of the landscape.

A lone bull pushes his hind-quarters into the gate,

Leaves a sickening musk there

In place of a kiss.

7.     I have always wanted to do a show based on William Gass’ On Being Blue, I was wondering if it had any influence on you?

I think that book is inspired, the idea that language can be evidenced through a color to heighten and solidify our experience of it, and maybe in some deep recess of my mind I was living for a moment in his “country of the blue.” If only to live there always!