Colleen Baran: Persist

Brisitish Columbia artist, Colleen Baran, continues my recent project by writing about "persist." As usual, I extend an invitation to all local artists who would like to participate in this effort. Just email me!

Love and Lust
Bracelet
Polyester, resin, acrylic, mylar, ink
9.8cm x 8.3cm x 0.85 cm
2003

Colleen Baran: Persist

A general theme that runs through my work, in all disciplines, is communication. I am interested in verbal and physical communication, differences in language, gestures, hidden messages, in the life of words, and in the ideas they represent. I’m interested in the idea of happiness, of love, of lust, etc. In the case of love, how recognizable is the form of somebody else’s love?

Universal ideas persist, ideals persist, and people persist in attempting to acquire/ know them. I am interested in the idea of Love as an object; as a tangible thing hidden on a dark shelf just out of reach. As something that persists beyond us to be found one day and displayed on a mantle or carried around on our sleeves. Love as something solid, to be lost and found, discarded and reclaimed. How does the permanence of idea relate to the individual and interact with the idea? How does the persistence of this universal idea affect the way we live our lives? Do people even recognize it when they find it or do their perceptions interfere with recognition?

In thinking about this difficulty in recognition, I started my ‘Translations’ series with the translation of varied connotations of the words ‘love’ and ‘lust’ into 26 global languages. I became interested in the notion of this persistence of idea and the nature of communication; in the flow from one idea into another and the need for previous experience to understand new material.

This series consists of word bubble shaped forms full of multilingual text. Multilayered and transparent (in clear resin) the text is clearly written & universal but the meaning is largely foreign and unrecognizable due to the mutability of form beyond idea. Despite this occasional unrecognizability of the familiar it repeats the same basic messages in their many connotations until the words and ideas they represent bleed together and overlap. The same thing repeated but only rarely recognizable.
This is the persistence of idea beyond form; of mutability of structure and in this case the very basic need for prior linguistic experience to understand.

Words change, there are many forms of words but general ideas persist. Thousands of years ago there were passionate relationships- boyfriends cheated, people loved, lied, fought, stole, etc- the intensity of emotion makes me wonder how the world could not implode- but it does not- we persist- emotions persist- ideas persist globally with change in form.

Secrets persist; they are there, hidden but ever present- even when forgotten. I believe in the permanence of idea- in the persistence of a thought or action or object as thing in and of itself- once done or said or created it is never undone. Everything we do, or even think about, has an ephemeral presence never to be undone. Idea as object. Concept as concrete.

Thinking about this persistence of secrets I started my ‘Secrets’ project late in 2004 with my request (over the internet) for secrets and brief biographical information. I currently have a body of 40 secrets; primarily from Canada and the United States with some from the Netherlands, Australia, and Ireland.

Many secrets are universal and there is beauty in that. Terse statements could be almost anybody (ex ‘Secret #2- I cheated on my boyfriend’) and only become more recognizable with added info (ex ‘Secret #2- Last year when I went to NY I drank too much and I cheated on my boyfriend’). The step after gathering is the selection of secrets to be hidden individually in jewellery, sunk into vibrant red resin and worn on the body pressed again skin- to be carried everyday, just as secrets are. Secrets are slowly revealed in text through alternate views or hidden in inner places. There is a ‘public’ statement, and a ‘private’ statement hidden when worn and known only to the wearer.

Many people have cheated, stolen, etc- Secrets persist and have been and will be the same always, other than modern additions (I stole a computer rather than I stole an apple) but persistent- there will always be secrets- and they will always be much the same- with only the form and the nature of the immediate experience changing.

Secret #2
Ring
2.1cm x 3.25cm x 3.25cm
Polyurethane, silver, mylar and ink
2005

Previous Posts:

Charles Neenan: Tradition
Kelly Towles: Color
Ryan Mulligan: Originality
Matt Hollis: Confinement
Dean Fueroghne: Originality
James W. Bailey: Obligation
J. Coleman: Depiction
Andy Moon Wilson: Decision
Molly Springfield: Language
Bryan Whitson: Scene
Elyse Harrison: Motivation
Jiha Moon Wilson: Influence
Alexandra Silverthorne: Derivative
Jose Ruiz: Contemporary
Kathleen Shafer: Focus
Jennifer McMackon: Connection
Gregg Chadwick: Responsibility
Warren Craghead: Material
Angela Kleis: Purpose
Peter Reginato: Order
Anna L. Conti: Community
Wayne Schoenfeld: Content
Elizabeth Morisette: Naive
Tim Tate: Craft
Jesse Cohen: Hidden
Greg Ferrand: Experience
Joseph Barbaccia: Commitment
Jamie Wimberly: Burden
Christine Tillman: Discovery
Candy Keegan: Personality
Allison B. Miner: Introspection
Jennifer Miller: Fresh
Rosetta DeBerardinis: Fluid
Marsha Stein: Pride
Tara Krause: Primal
Andrew Krieger: Imagination
Trish Tillman: Technology
James Leonard: Conscience
Rachael Baldanza: Fun
Nathan Manuel: Subject
Prescott Moore Lassman: Capture