Tara Donovan, Space and Time

I had the privilege of seeing a Tara Donovan instillation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver yesterday and I was BLOWN away!

 

Look at the SCALE of these! Tar paper made to look like waves or shale rock or lava flows perhaps.

      

Mylar folded up to look like some kind of otherworldly plant, strips of Mylar arranges in circles on the wall made to look like oyster shells in a coral pattern, index cards meticulously stacked up to resemble salt or tufa towers, straws made to look like a mist…

    

Each installation is sticking with me.

  

In some ways, her pieces could be about the passage of time, and the way things form and grow over time in nature. She’s undoubtedly taking the time to place each piece of paper, or strip of mylar, or plastic straw or index card in ways that mimic organic growth.

We tend to think of space and time as two separate concepts, but can time be “seen” in this way?