Carol Parker
Counterstance with Drawing

Twenty-one life-size figures made of plaster, burlap and foil were placed throughout the space in various groupings. Dry pigment was applied on some figures and dusted on some areas of the floor near the figures. Body alignment and gesture differed from figure to figure. “Psychological implications of the human figure provoke a cognitive response even with the most minimal information. The viewer identifies with the most minimal information. The viewer identifies with the sculpted figures (scale and presence) because of the shared symbol… I see the viewer becoming a performer in this envisioned drama.” [artist’s statement] The artist hung a 36×1800″ strip of paper around the perimeter of the space. Each day she moved around the space slowing drawing a line on the paper; on successive days, she employed different colored poster chalks. “Moving around the space there is a substantial spatiotemporal induces a counter perspective and an altered sense of the ground line. I included the idea of working with my presence, not only with the plaster figure sculpture to my scale bus (as with the drawing) where I am positioned in relation to the drawn line on the wall, and ultimately hoe the whole interacts and moves the spectator to view and participate in the space.” [artist’s statement]

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.