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Anna Gefke:

D I S T A N C E
 
 
Anna Gefke
Studio Art major, Mathematics minor
 
My work:
  • Begins with structure
  • Is influenced by mathematics
  • Grids, concentric circles, Reimann sums
  • Documents time, emotion, and state of mind through a daily practice of rendering apples
  • Shifts back and forth between realistic representation and abstraction, photography and painting
  • Is didactical and experimental
  • Plays with collage
 
What...
Paintings, Drawing, Photography
Performance art (life is a performance, I delineate between one cast of characters and the rest of life's ensemble)
 
Why...
To explore identity and individual ways of looking. Because societies grow by bringing these topics into conversation.
 
How...
Creating rules of practice, then allowing each work to direct my process.
Seclusion for research, and community for discussion.
 
~.~
 
Apple
pen, charcoal, plaster, ink, sandpaper, performance
 
Apple is a daily practice of drawing and painting catalyzed by my amusement with apples. An accumulation of my bites of the fruit work with the internal structure of the apple to result in a uniquely-shaped apple core. After eating comes the documentation. The final portrayal is a snapshot of taste and time: how the apple tasted, how long the core oxidized for. My mind digests the information I collect on each apple and then spits it back out on paper via my hand.
 
grid of small paintings on paper of apples in various states of completeness on tan wall
 
on a grayish fabric wall, a large grid arrangement of small drawings, with a red and white checked painting on paper to its right. On the floor is the shape of the red and white painting marked out in blue tape.
 
close-up on multiple small drawings hung in rows on a fabric wall. The bottom right drawing's place is taken by a real hand holding a green apple
 
a large grid of small paintings and drawings on a gray fabric wall. In front of them a person in a black tshirt, blue jeans, and blue facemask sits cross-legged on top of a red and white checked piece of paper on the floor. Their hands are up to catch a green apple in midair.
 
 
~.~
 
Titled, No. A1945802 #1

acrylic, ash, ink, tape on canvas

large painting in gallery, layered imagery of landscapes and purple interior mixed with abstraction and faux blue tape; word 'ASIAN' and a number along bottom edge of the canvas

 
My grandfather, Jim Pyke, and I have one thing in commons: we were both born in China. However, whereas my grandfather was an American citizen by birth, I became an American citizen at 16 months old.
 
For this project I searched for a better understanding of the disparate parts of mine and my grandfather's lives. How is his experience growing up in China in a family of missionaries tied to my experience growing up in America?
 
On paper we could not be more different: Jim Pyke, White, Male | Anna Gefke, Asian, Female. Yet, the complexities of both of our lives converge within me. How do these pieces fit together?
 
~.~
 
 

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