Detail of Erin Shirreff, Spatial Moto, 2023 (detail). Dye sublimation prints on aluminum, latex paint.
SITE Santa Fe is pleased to present Folded stone, a solo exhibition by Erin Shirreff, whose spare, evocative works pose fundamental questions about how art is received and remembered.
Though trained as a sculptor, Shirreff centers her practice on acts of material translation, revealing how sculpture’s defining traits—real space, live encounter—adjust when filtered through other formats. These “hybrid scenarios,” as the artist describes them, recur throughout the exhibition: a new monumental sculpture, for instance, is inspired by grainy images of a mid-century example; photographs are printed and then cut or creased to gain near-sculptural dimension; the glacial pan of a digital video conflates still and moving image.
Each work is a wedge that pries open the space between representation and the thing itself, and shares a visual language drawn from the stark geometries of mid-century abstraction—a touchstone for Shirreff, whose work loosely channels the authority of that bygone era, asking what (if any) of its utopian aspirations are still palpable in the present. Ultimately, Shirreff points to how art is accessed, both in person and in reproduction, delivering a heightened viewing experience that defies the leveling effects of our screen-based world.
Erin Shirreff: Folded stone is on view at SITE Santa Fe through May 27, 2024. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.