Katrina's statement and image

I am looking forward to meeting you all on Wednesday evening. I apologize for not being able to make the first meeting but I was on an amazing backpacking adventure in Mammoth and was off the grid.

Barbara is posting a couple images for me. If you'd like to see more you can go to my website www.katrinamcelroy.com. There are also a few short videos posted on www.vimeo.com (just search my name "katrina mcelroy"). Below is a copy of my proposal for the exhibition. Again, look forward to meeting you Wed!

It is with great pleasure that I submit this proposal to work with Lisa Randall, Lia Holloran and fellow members of LAAA on the “Scale” exhibition. I am excited by the idea of collaboration and reinvention of my work based on this fundamental yet deceivingly complex theme.

My work explores the complexities of grief, not as an isolated emotion, but in its connections to seemingly opposite emotions such as joy. I represent visually the fluctuation between these two extremes and their symbiotic relationship to one another. Scale is an important part of my process and conceptual ideas. My installations begin with video footage that I take of myself in spontaneous, heightened emotional states, particularly, though not limited to, those pertaining to the shedding of tears (both of joy and sadness). I extract, edit, and crop stills from the video. I then compose these small individual images into one larger composition, often adhering the photographs directly to the wall. This dichotomy of scale inevitably creates a double read. Up close, the varying facial expressions and body language within the individual parts illustrate the constant fluctuation of emotion, from smiles to grimaces. From afar, the composition and pattern creates a visual metaphor. Here I consider the tendency to analyze, compartmentalize, organize and manipulate emotion despite of, and because of, its persistence, cyclical nature and its ability to overwhelm. In order to fully see the work, the viewer must physically move forward and backward to see detail or the overall pattern. This movement back and forth mimics the emotional tide that I capture in my video.

Architecture and /or the space in which the piece resides (the wall, a frame, a room) are also an integral part of my work. Often, an internal dialogue between my source material and a physical location sparks my ideas. I want to evoke a physical reaction with the viewer; the space and how the body moves and views within that space is a point of consideration in my designs. Conceptually this consideration is linked with emotional connections with space. Emotional responses are triggered or influenced by environment: public versus private space, dark versus light, expansive versus claustrophobic, familiar versus foreign.

In my work, scale is not a design element to be taken for granted or decided upon lightly. It is one of the most basic considerations, yet its impact is omnipotent. I hope to have the opportunity to further contemplate my ideas and those of others with this exciting collaborative exhibition. Thank you for your time and consideration.