QUAD (897) 1997

Curator: This is Creighton Michael’s "QUAD (897)", created in 1997. It's a mixed-media drawing on paper. Editor: It strikes me immediately as quite precarious. These bold, dark lines seem almost architectural, but everything feels like it’s on the verge of collapse, or perhaps in a state of dynamic tension? Curator: That sense of instability might stem from Michael's ongoing investigation into the grid. Artists, architects and social planners adopted grids as a universal method for imposing order in art and in civic designs for housing and land distribution. Here, Michael subverts the very system used to achieve social and political order. Editor: I agree. There's this underlying sense of a system failing or perhaps being resisted. The translucency of the paper too, this layered quality, suggests palimpsests of power. Like an echo of what came before. It almost feels ghostlike. Curator: It’s interesting you pick up on the ghostliness. There's a faint printed square with indecipherable text partially obscured in the work. The layering adds to a sense of accumulated history. You have a really unique take to a material typically regarded as something mundane like paper. It is exciting to think that it has such power. Editor: Exactly. It encourages you to pause, to reflect on these fragmented histories and potential collapses or rebellions. This invites a discussion about the use and abuse of structures across race, class, and even gender. Curator: The materials themselves are worth considering. Drawing is often viewed as preliminary. To what extent is this piece preliminary, incomplete, or in transition? We might think of this piece as an entry point for larger social discourse and critique. Editor: Perhaps Michael's artwork reminds us that questioning pre-established foundations can potentially lead to new growth. Curator: Absolutely. I think this piece resonates especially today because it encourages questioning of social structures which shape how our lives unfold. Editor: Yes, art is political whether or not one decides that art is or is not political. Curator: It also prompts a personal interrogation of how power influences and shapes us. Editor: And leaves one to wonder if a re-imagining is indeed feasible, and what action is demanded to create such shift.