STEP. STEP. STEP.
COMPANION presents STEP. STEP. STEP., a new storybook and exhibition by Rebekah Nolan. The exhibition offers an immersive exploration of the book's narrative and visual themes and features collaborating artists Landon Caldwell, Priya Wittman, Danielle Joy Graves, and Nick Witten.
The exhibition is generous, perceptive, and serves as a timely reminder to stay the course amid staggering uncertainty.
STEP. STEP. STEP. presents three room-sized installations, each with an accompanying sound composition, under the creative direction of Rebekah Nolan. Nolan herself shares more than 200 new, acrylic and oil pastel drawings and paintings, each a variation on a theme. An otherwise ignored portion of the gallery is activated with a conjuring graphite and found object collaboration by Danielle Joy Graves and Nick Witten. In her largest textile work to date, Priya Wittman contributes an embracing and monumental tulle installation. The visual explorations of STEP. STEP. STEP. are each supported by generative, site-relational sound works composed by Landon Caldwell.
Rebekah Nolan
Recognized for supple, exaggerated forms and abstract depictions of care, Nolan ushers audiences through the discomfort of what is unknown or unrecognizable. STEP. STEP. STEP. continues this path and treads new ground in expansive and meditative ways. The book is loosely autobiographical with 23 new illustrations and words that move readers through the daily walks of an artist. The first gallery features Nolan's 200+ new, acrylic and oil pastel drawings and paintings of daily steps.
Priya Wittman
Wittman responds to the storybook, producing her largest textile work to date — an embracing and monumental tulle installation reminiscent of a pink and blue sky. The installation sweeps an entire wall and ceiling in the third gallery space. It comprises 144 individual panels each their own composition of 20 quilting pins and 80 square pieces of carefully layered and placed tulle.
The Pink and Blue Sky
Landon Caldwell
Landon Caldwell composed generative, site-relational sound works distinct to each installation. The looped compositions play continuously and concurrently, fading in and out of each other as viewers move between the galleries. Audio includes field recordings of Nolan walking and white noise.
90-minute casette tape
Danielle Joy Graves
A collection of keys, keychains, and Graves' small gum sculptures emerge from a corner, suspended above. A tottering stack of dried, halved lemons sit below. Dried leaves are caught in an old yellow bowl overhead, internally lit and hinting at streetlight. A petrified log rests beneath an air vent with more halved lemons. Two ducks sit side-by-side, one plastic and situated in light, the other an aluminum casting of the first and in shadow — referencing Nolan's book illustration, Step In.
The Empty Space
Nick Witten
Scattered throughout the galleries are Witten's cast foam and rubberized silicone replicas of the Birkenstock clogs prominently featured in Nolan's work. Sherbet, primary, and neon colored casts feature tonal variations and occasional, sometimes excessive flashing. The color variations and preservation of the flash evidence the hand-colored, hand-cast nature of his reproduction process. Shoes in the book shelves are available for viewers to wear while moving between the three spaces.
Rubber and Foam Shoe
