Alison Davis

Nets are patterns that catch and hold. The patterns of our lives also ensnare us. Often, those patterns are beneficial routines, but there are many patterns that hold us back. This series of work is a consideration of patterns generally as well as the work it takes to construct and deconstruct those patterns.

The net drawings are laid out in even grids. Periodically the ordered repetition of the grid is disrupted by extra pieces of string, holes that have been irregularly patched, and places where the nets lose their pattern. There is a tension between the orderliness of the grid pattern and the slight variations that encourage the viewer to come in close to examine each knot and to seek out new patterns in the areas where the regular grid is broken.

The animations and drawings of the hands reference the mundane, day-to-day work that goes into mending and maintaining a routine. Work that is overlooked yet constant and unceasing. Without this vigilance, there are so many ways in which the ordered world can become disordered.

In conflict with this, is the acknowledgment that systems and patterns can also be harmful and require reordering. Sometimes the disruption of a pattern is necessary. And so, while some of the drawn and animated hands work to build and maintain the grid pattern of the nets the other hands take that pattern apart to create spaces that resist the dominant pattern to allow for variation and change. This project was created with support from the Manitoba Arts Council.