Friday, December 28, 2012

Whisper Pitch- Doni Silver Simons

Doni Silver Simons-featured in the project room:

ALCHEMY
November 10, 2012-January 15, 2013

The Loft at Liz's
453 S. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-939-4403 ext. 6
www.theloftatlizs.com

Main Gallery:
Andy Moses, Mike Street, Robert Mack, Linda Vallejo, Zadik Zadikian, Stuart Kusher,
Guillermo Bert, Lisa Bartleson, Suzan Woodruff, Ching Ching Cheng


 
 
WHISPER PITCH
 
The interaction and communication between audience and art are "gold" to me.  Whisper Pitch
is my response to the invitation to create work based on the themes of "gold and alchemy" for this exhibition.
 
 
Whisper Pitch represents the alchemical transformation of elemental into complex.  Utilizing a drawn line, the most basic component of art, this work explores the magic of marking.  The piece begins with my single drawing horizontal line.  Throughout Whisper Pitch, guests are invited to also draw a single horizontal line.  The culmination is a drawing comprised of multiple lines, side by side and intertwined.
 
Each individual mark becomes encoded within this web creating the symphonic voice of a communal work.
 
Doni Silver Simons


I was able to interview Doni on the phone and also in person at the gallery space.  Doni's current interactive-drawing-installation-performance investigates the formal issues of line from literal to conceptual to ethereal.  A scroll of paper surrounds the installation space on three walls.  Doni invites individual gallery visitors to choose a drawing tool such as charcoal sticks, pencils, and oil sticks.  They are asked to make a continual mark along the three walls.  Each person creates marks based on their height. 


When Doni interacts with each person she stresses that Whisper Pitch is not about making art.  What is paramount is being present.  Doni continued to say that "...you as a person is present-the residual was the mark...".  This concept of leaving residual marks existed since Doni was a child.  She frequently spent time on the beach playfully dragging a stick on the sand.  As Doni reached her destination, she would turn and absorb the emphemeral marks that were a component of her journey. 


Doni had participants express loss of ego and become "the collective symphony of voices".   There have been heartfelt demonstrations of tears and expressions of "feeling human".  Whisper Pitch is reduced to the basic essentials of drawing lines.  These lines have unified numerous visitors which continue to move and have an impact far beyond the installation walls that currently house Whisper Pitch.