Annette Cords

Enamored of her physicist father’s scientific studies—his world of synchrotrons, electromagnetic fields, and sub-atomic particles—Annette Cords makes abstract paintings, works on paper, collages, sculptures, installations, and tapestries about systems, both man-made and organic. “Inspired by the life and physical sciences and recent developments in technology, I investigate intersections of nature and technology, and the interdependent systems that underlie and connect them,” she explains. These appear as a mixture of layered shapes and patterns that suggest computer circuitry, chemical and molecular structures, urban grids, DNA, honeycombs, and even graffiti, among many other marks and formations. In an untitled sculpture from 2005, for example, Cords crafted fragmented, nested cones out of bright red mesh. The cones seem to emerge from the ground and pierce the space like giant, rolled graphs, or like ambient energy made visible.