Stephani Quam

Ellipses
graphite on paper

Although time is often constructed linearly, the succession of days, seasons, economic cycles, and popular ideology prove that constaints do exist in spite of ever-present change. In my practice, I am concentrated on exploring my contention with adapting to change by combining repetitive shapes with elements of chance, using varied materials and processes.

The origin of the material used to create this piece (Ellipses) was made out of plastic scrap from an unknown manufacturing order, reclaimed into a stencil, and repurposed to create the 100 drawings that make up the piece. Both the process of making and the product made demonstrate the combination of possibilities that exist within the unknown future.

Ellipses is part of a larger body of work titled Theory of Forms after the philosopher Plato’s theory, which suggests that abstract forms (ideas) shape human reality far greater than the physical world understood through the senses.