STATEMENT
For the past few years I’ve been researching various temporal spectrums through the lenses of geology, biology, ecology, fungible time, and quantum mechanics. Alongside this I’ve been dedicated to exploring attention and how much of our lives are driven by this force. Through taking back control and increasing attention, experiential time takes a qualitative shift.
With this research in mind I enact processes that are time-sensitive and site-specific. These performances in printmaking, painting, and sculpture not only physically render a variety of temporal frames, but also push and expand my attention span. The works themselves become catalysts for a new way of perceiving, allowing time to become specific. Each moment holds its own particular quality, building a visual language that reflects the interconnectedness of the systems around us.
Tapping into attentiveness in order to record the rapidly changing world around us is an essential tool to navigate the Anthropocene. Agency over time is political. With direction and care it can be a building block in the formation of a more just planet, turned away from capitalism, and toward community with human, and more-than-human entities.
BIO
Penelope Anstruther, born in Britain, has been living in the Bay Area since 2012. She has exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, most notably at the Tate Modern, London and has had solo shows in Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland. She was artist in residence at the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency Vicksburg, MI and the Mutual Artist Residency, Oakland CA. Her works are in SFMoMA Library + Archives, the Gates Reading Room at Denver Library and numerous private collections.