RAYE BEMIS

INSTALLATION (UNTITLED) DECEMBER 1997, ARC GALLERY @ RAW SPACE, CHICAGO.
Size: Approximately 18' x 16' (floor to ceiling)
Materials: Site-specific curved wall, on-location pillar, bees wax tiles, over 300- 8"x 8" squares, nails

Excerpts from an interview with the artist, Raye Bemis.
Video and interview by Nancy Bechtol, RawSpace Curator.

Raye comments on her installation:

I am much more interested in what emotion might rise out of the sensory experience, than in the intellectual reaction.

...the amount of physical and mental discipline to carry out the piece is important.

 ...Is it architecture or is it art? I like things to relate in some subtle way.

A...what is really interesting to me in doing the work is that it really is the unknown. Like when I am meditating catch an image I could not have predicted.

 Q: In constructing the piece, did you hand nail all these bees wax squares yourself? There must be over 300!

A: Yes, I nailed all the wax tiles myself . The interesting thing was the wax is very temperamental. When it got cold in here, the wax would crack. If I had a negative thought go through my head, when I was hammering, the tile would crack. And then I realized the connection--after cracking about 30 tiles--that if I thought negative , my hand would clench on the hammer....just enough differently, that the force from the hammer to the nail-- I didn't let it penetrate through the tile, and it would create this weird kind of resistance and make the tile crack. So that was an interesting learning experience.

Q: So, this is actually put together with mental physical and spiritual forces?

A:... very demanding forces of energy...  

Detail of wax squares