UNDO CLOUD (OUR WORDS ARE STONE)

2022


Hypercardioid microphones, inkjet prints, 60 second delay, PA speakers

// installation / sound art / graphic design / exhibtion //

With Andrew C. Lorish, Alyson Provax, Madeline Maszk, and Stephanie Parnes. Presented by Eugene Contemporary Art at ANTI-AESTHETIC, Eugene, OR.

phono: sound, voice

morpho: form, shape

idiot: a stupid person

PhonoMorphoIdiot is a group exhibition that considers the uncertainties and absurdities of our verbal, written, and text-based communication. We exist between a shared understanding and the sensory and cultural edges of language which are shaped by everything from bodily states, fantasies and in-group signaling, to predictive text, targeted advertising and character limits. Whether through image-making, objects or sound, the artists in this show engage with language’s flexibility – often to its breaking point. Channels become convoluted, noise increases, the signal is misdirected or lost. By staying with these failures and frolicking in their wreckage, we may stumble upon alternative modes of signifying and connecting to one another (ECA).

One of two pieces exhibited in a group show I co-curated with artist Stephanie Parnes titled PhonoMorphoIdiot. The presence of microphones prompted most visitors to speak (or shout, unsure of what would happen) only to find that their voice would be repeated a full 60 seconds later, often when they had forgotten about it as they made their way through the rest of the exhibition. We confess to the cloud and can never take it back. Words and self-perception become fixed objects we no longer control.

Fist money (series)



2022


Size varies, Graphite and marker on gessoed panel

// drawing / exhibition //
With Andrew C. Lorish, Alyson Provax, Madeline Maszk, and Stephanie Parnes. Presented by Eugene Contemporary Art at ANTI-AESTHETIC, Eugene, OR.

phono: sound, voice

morpho: form, shape

idiot: a stupid person

PhonoMorphoIdiot is a group exhibition that considers the uncertainties and absurdities of our verbal, written, and text-based communication. We exist between a shared understanding and the sensory and cultural edges of language which are shaped by everything from bodily states, fantasies and in-group signaling, to predictive text, targeted advertising and character limits. Whether through image-making, objects or sound, the artists in this show engage with language’s flexibility – often to its breaking point. Channels become convoluted, noise increases, the signal is misdirected or lost. By staying with these failures and frolicking in their wreckage, we may stumble upon alternative modes of signifying and connecting to one another (ECA).

One of two pieces exhibited in a group show I co-curated with artist Stephanie Parnes titled PhonoMorphoIdiot. Building on steady drawing I had been doing since 2020, this series was a completion of work I initially began in 2017 as a reaction to the idiot President in office. Each piece is a distillation of my interest in broken language and draws on individual elements or ideas taken from other drawings. 

Originally an untitled series with the subtitle Scary time, R U ded?


Dead Sharp





2019︎︎︎ongoing


deadsharp.bandcamp.com

// sound / music releases / graphic design / video //


Dead Sharp is my ongoing solo project. Part research, part platform, this work extends my visual art practice into the realm of sonic textures, rhythm, sampling, and electro-acoustic noise. It also provides an excuse to design album covers.

My process with sound-making mirrors my image-making practice - it is one of gathering, adding, subtracting and iteration. It emphasizes improvisation and operating with the material at hand. Pieces are often constructed by sampling the in-between sections of existing sounds in the hopes of creating rhythm and mood out of something previously unnoticed.

Molten calf (series)


2021


14” x 17”, Graphite, marker, ink on paper

// Drawing //
In 2020 I restarted my drawing practice as a way to rethink my output with a narrow set of tools and iconography I had developed over the last several years. Broken structures, ghosts, empty capes and “doom wads” have become a steady visual grammar that is mostly about me deconstructing the ideologies and beliefs of my childhood. You can read more about the thinking behind some of this work in an ongoing series on my blog titled An index of personal effects

This is a handful of a larger body of drawings that felt like it belonged together. These have yet to be exhibited. Don’t be shy. 

Old Bones Upon the Valley Shake

2017


All work 18” x 24” archival laser jet prints

// graphic design / collaboration / exhibition //
Old bones upon the valley shake was the result of a game of layer tennis between artists Julia Oldham, Jessie Rose Vala, and myself. Exhibited at Slightly Coffee for Eugene Contemporary Art.

We shared files, swapped layers, and basically tried to make each other laugh and dare the other to add or remove something from what we had left behind. An image based dialoge where you find out where your friends eyes drift and absorb the visual world around them.

We edited a large set of working files down to the best 9 images for the exhibition and for temporary sale.
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We march steady towards annihilation  // All content © Courtney Stubbert 2022