Abstract
When you cast a crystal in concrete or rubber, the form may stay the same but the appearance and feeling completely change. One is translucent, carrying the blithe mystique of the new age, while the other heavy, rugged, industrial.
This work attempted to marry the metaphysical and the industrial, calling both into question. In the desire to reconcile both forces lies fragility and futility. Crystals stacked like firewood, quartz fuses with waffles, and sage was petrified in resin. In both the making and in the materials, the artist attempted to embed a mystical notion in an object from a daily routine with the mute weight of geological rigor.
Tory Fair is an artist working in Boston. Her recent exhibitions include You Are Here at the Worcester Art Museum in MA, The Plant Show in Galveston, Texas and The Intuitionists at The Drawing Center in New York. She has exhibited at LaMontagne Gallery in Boston, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln MA, and Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Her awards include a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Pollock Krasner Grant, LEF Grant, and the Jane and Theadore Norman Faculty Research Grant. She received her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and her BA from Harvard University. Fair is an Associate Professor of Sculpture at Brandeis University.