ZIMMER MUSEUM | 2007 | Exhibition Catalogue

Show & Tell, The Art of Harmony
Curated by Kate Stern

"I Saw with Clarity", 2006 | 23 x 8 x 3inches | violin,cotton thread

Never had I imagined such patient, sustained labor. I could see, hear, feel, touch. As I watched Kurt gouge and plane and scrape and scoop and flex, I saw with clarity that the creative process was not about reaching for romantic images, but hard applied effort.

Norma Barzman,
THE END OF ROMANCE,
A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin

 

Artist Satement:

From my early training as a dancer and years as an artist’s apprentice in Japan, the foundation of my work is based in practice and repetition.

Most recently in my visual and performance work, I am examining the concept of tabula rasa. I have been exploring a path of de-evolution, an attempt to return to tabula rasa.

Meeting Norma Barzman last year at a reading of her book and later through correspondence and visiting her in her home in Beverly Hills, I am inspired by a woman’s potential for a rich, full experience.

This violin holds the memories of practice – the use and abuse of its former anonymous owner. It holds my hand -- the edited sanding away of these experiences. And it holds the contained promise for feminine power.