Since she visited the adobe buildings of New Mexico in 2003, N. Dash has continued her exploration of the material as an artistic medium. Her immersive abstract compositions, like the one seen here, feature adobe along with natural fibers, pigments, and traditional media of acrylic and oil paint. The fabric (that often acts as an invisible support in traditional paintings) lays over the wood frame in panels, revealing the wood stretchers on either side. The wrinkles and frayed edges of the cloth and the trowel marks on the adobe surface below it assert an intimate relationship to the artist’s own body and the process that spread the adobe and handled the fabric. Each material brings with it individual associations, textures, and a unique physicality that emphasizes touch over other senses.
photo credit: jean vong, new york