Breaking with purpose—this is how New Zealand artist Louise McRae describes her creative act. Selecting found wood, cutting it, and painting it before it's molded into dynamic assemblages, McRae's work demonstrates an explosive spirit. By fitting together the broken down wood into art that is perfectly imperfect, McRae makes sense of chaos—or rather harnesses it to her advantage. "I have always broken things by accident, now I was breaking with purpose, it felt good, my response to the world of 'perfection,' a world that has been beyond my ability to master," McRae explains.
The natural material is often painted, but the artist does vary her technique by occasionally charring or silver foiling the wood. The color and texture only serve to enhance the forms McCrae creates within each assemblage. Undulating waves embrace large and small squares or sharp, straight lines shoot out from a forceful radius—each piece creating a unique sensorial reading by the spectator. McCrae, whose work is available via Seed Gallery and 33 Gallery, relates her work—including her choice of recycled materials—back to the Cubist movement. "Using recycled materials harks back to the practices of the Cubists, with their characteristic distortions and attempts to represent time, space, and motion within an artwork; the resulting works swell with movement and color."
via [Colossal]
All images via Seed Gallery.
