Throughline presents six works by Arthur Simms from the 1990s which highlight the extensive threads, literal and metaphorical, that Simms has drawn in his practice across continents, place and time. Using a core set of materials in his sculptures such as rope, wood, found and ephemeral objects, Simms has developed a language of linear and abstract connections that have sustained his practice over several decades. The language enacted in Simms’s rope sculptures is one of entanglements, abundance, loss and transformation. Found materials and wood are used to build armatures, or foundations, and various types of rope are then feverishly tied, bound, and wrapped giving the foundation a new skin. Each knot transforms the veiled objects into a forest of warps and lines creating new nebulae. Influenced by his current position in the world or memories of specific events, Simms’s drawing practice takes on its own taxonomy. Combining visual renderings to almost meticulous didactic titles, the drawings become markers of Simms’s life and history. He includes markers of his ancestral line, by signing all of the drawings on view with the moniker Chester Arthur, an homage to his late father.
Throughline creates a dialogue of drawn and physical lines; the sculptures and drawings warp and move collaboratively.
November 8 – December 15, 2019
Opening reception, Friday, November 8, 6-8pm at Shoot the Lobster NY.