Gayle Crites

About the Artist

GAYLE CRITES
Artist Statement
Spring 2011

We can now connect with the farthest corners of the globe through the Internet. With only a moment’s delay, we can access information and photos of the world’s most remote regions and communicate instantly with humans in far away lands. These humans, of diverse ethnic identities, are the surviving “tribes” of our modern world. Globalization is a force that enhances an interconnected and economically integrated world, yet via that process, is also the force that threatens cultural identities and aids in the dissolution of the earth’s unique tribes. Along with the loss of aboriginal languages, religions, knowledge and life styles, we suffer the disappearance of their indigenous art forms. Commercial values overcome the cultural ones, as there is little money to be made in the creation of the time-consuming handmade products of their forefathers.

In this new body of large-scale collages, I have combined handmade materials by indigenous artisans in different parts of the world including “bark” poundings from Tonga, camel hair weavings from Iraq, paper from Japan, natural indigo dye from India and silk from China. Many of the materials in these works are soon to be culturally obsolete. Superimposed over these rare indigenous art forms are intricate brush marks, drawn to represent our interconnectedness through the Internet. Most of the compositions have no vertical or horizontal preference for hanging and therefore represent an absence of geographic longitude and latitude. Finally, the large forms created by the brush and ink drawings reflect the basic and universal elements of indigenous craft design, including circles, triangles, squares, spirals and crosses. I hope to express the beauty in the complexity of this repeating and universally symbolic script.

Exploration of the vast subject of globalization has opened many doors for study. Questions have come to my consciousness regarding our ancestors and the ancient trade routes of culture and goods disbursement – the historic predecessors of the Internet. My collage entitled, “Migrate” challenges the meaning of words like “distant” and “remote”; each meaning less now than they did in a geographical sense to the ancient world. An abstract piece, “Silk Road”, is included in this exhibition as an historic comparison to our contemporary World-Wide-Web. My studies of ancient trade routes led to expressions on the subjects of family, community and ethnocentrism. The piece, “History Remembers Judgment”, with its bordered territories, speaks to the consequences of human colonialism and, ultimately, imperialism. Regional and world wars, with their inherent bloodshed, dot the history of man’s loyalty to clan, religion and flag. This line of thinking regarding the meaning and actions of “tribe” inspired the multi-media composition, “Bloodline”. The piece, “Code”, evolved from considerations of global communications. The universal symbols for spheres, borders, centers, arrows and cycles have similar meanings around the globe. “Code” explores geometrical shapes that describe the earliest world alphabets and words, our “logos”. They are common denominators of many written languages including those of the North American Indians, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Cuneiform, Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. The use of the circle and standing line are the basis of computer binary code. (zero / one or off / on)

Global society still contains a wide variety of ethnic identities who are fighting for maintenance of their native languages, clean environment, natural resources, art forms, governments and culture. Because of the Internet, we are now all citizens of the world. I hope our world view will include concern for the distribution of food and technology, adoption of human rights legislation, and the promotion of self-sufficiency among people throughout the world who treat each other with fairness and justice.

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