HAlf by Avantika Bawa

HAlf
Perfect Partials by Avantika Bawa

@ DOPPLER PDX
625 NW Everett Street #109
Everett Station Lofts
Portland, Oregon 97209

Opening Reception February 4th 5:30-9:00
February 4-13th 2010
Gallery hours Saturdays 1-4

HAlf investigates the history of ready-mades and tactility of drawings that are perfected for display, but then denied this perfection when presented in a state that is physically half of their original. These works explore the wholeness of objects, the act of completing and the desire for a finish, by obstruction and halting these very states, gestures or desires.
In these works Bawa consciously puts the act of drawing into the service of sculptural design so that handmade gestures intimately connect to architectural supports. This emerges due, in part, to her relationship to the legacy of Minimalism and its emphasis upon reductive form, modularity and literal scale. Her approach explores the balance (or imbalances) between wholeness and fragmentation, gravity and suspension, or containment and dispersal. The works initially allude to logic and function, but in essence defy both.In HAlf, functional objects become flexible three-dimensional structures while also serving as source material for the drawings. Cutting the works down in two perfect halves, and presenting only one of the halves draws attention to the formal elegance and quirkiness that often exits in the residue of that which is perfectly destroyed. Additionally, the presence of absence is now brought to the forefront and a visual poetry is attempted through this controlled destruction.

To view more of Avantika's work please visit http://www.avantikabawa.com/