Artist Spotlight: Elana Herzog

images via Elana Herzog

"For the past ten years I’ve made most of my work by stapling found textiles—often bedspreads and carpets—to the walls using thousands of metal staples. Parts of the fabric and the staples are then removed and sometimes reapplied, leaving a residue of shredded fabric and perforated wall surface in some areas, and densely stapled and built-up areas elsewhere. In these “sculptural drawings” staples act as mark and material, penetrating, distressing, and ornamenting the skin of the wall. The progressively dematerialized image, articulated by metal staples and fabric residue, seems to be simultaneously emerging from and disappearing into the wall. Staples mimic the patterns and weave of the fabric, and a kind of binary language emerges—staple being analogous to stitch." -Elana Herzog

-B