Catch            

Spray paint on PVC-coated canvas tarpaulin, fan, and nylon rope

2016

University Galleries ISU

In Catch Claire Ashley creates a child like environment where viewers are bombarded with color, shape, form, and comfort. The piece is placed in the center of the large well-lit room with spherical pillow like sculptures hanging in a net of yellow rope. The sculptures, made out of PVC-coated canvas tarpaulin, are bursting out of the holes in the net. Each inflatable is shaped in its own unique way while familiar pastel colors are softly applied to each of them using spray paint.   

Ashley incorporates line into her three dimensional piece in many ways. She uses rope to create a net that holds the piece together, which can be interpreted as motherly support for the structure. She also uses the folds and creases to create lines along the surface of each form within the net making each sculpture seem human in a way. As each crease would represent maybe a fold in skin or stretch marks. An x seems to repeat throughout this piece as well as others in her exhibition. In her piece Bugs, she uses them to represent eyes, while in this piece she places them randomly throughout.  

Using PVC-coated canvas Ashley creates all kinds of figures and shapes, some simple blobs while others seem to have more specific forms. Some even seem human like with skin folds and limbs.  She creates this by creasing the PVC-coated canvas in different areas stiches or patches those areas, which creates different lines and shapes.

Ashley doesn’t seem to incorporate much lighting into this work, but the room was very well lit from the florescent lights above the piece and the large windows to the right as you enter. There is very little shadow in the piece other than the very little inside the pile of sculptures.

Catch is full of high value and a mix of primary and secondary pastel colors. The colors on the piece are all pastel or neon colors. Each color is applied very carefully using spray paint to give the forms a very soft feel, which again makes me think of childhood or an Easter theme.

Speaking of the texture, each form looked as if it was a fluffy pillow with extremely soft fabric. The spray paint was applied almost in a tie-die pattern giving the piece a very mellow and happy look.

Ashley uses the space in a very creative way. Knowing that she couldn’t put every individual piece in the exhibition she decided to put them all into one. As one of the bigger pieces in the exhibition it takes up a large amount of space and not just vertically but horizontally as well. As the center of the room it is clear she wanted most of the attention on this piece out of all the rest. Space is also used inside the piece itself. The net holding all the sculptures is very small compared to the size of the sculptures. So each sculpture is almost bursting out of the net trying to get free.

Ashley’s piece is a great display of design, creativity, and imagery. Catch is a very well balanced piece with soft child like colors and forms. Knowing that Ashley is a mother and she created the child like theme throughout the exhibition I want to conclude that she was trying to create something to do with her motherhood.  A toy box first comes to mind.  The yellow net represents a box full of toys, but I thought more about motherhood and I thought of a metaphorical womb. Some of the sculptures seem to have limbs on the end giving them a life like form. Each sculpture also seems to be trying to break out of the net holding them back. Maybe this represents her hesitation to let her children go, or let them leave the nest if you will.