Word
Installation/Poetry

WORD was inspired by the blank page. The inspiration of paper falling came as all ideas do, from an unknown source. I saw it in my mind’s eye, and then I wanted to create it. The challenge of how to shape the paper was a compelling problem that excited me. I created my own glue recipe, chose fabric netting as a shape holder, then used pliable screening as slings to dry the paper into particular shapes.  Netting was my lens.

Net: Old English net: “netting, network, spider web”
Latin: nodus “knot”
Old French net: "clean, pure”
Latin nitere: "to shine, look bright”

The word net appears to be a paradox. To be knotted and yet to shine. Blank pieces of paper, bound in netting, suspended in time, an expression of the ineffable. The poems, too, come from some unknown source and create pictures from a nomadic life. For me, creating art means living in the question, allowing answers to unfold.

Jean Fogel Zee is a resident artist at El Zaguán. Until recently, she was a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and producer. Countless solo, duet, and large scale performances of her original works and collaborations were supported by grants from the City of Austin, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Writing poetry became her refuge between rehearsals, teaching, performing, and raising a child solo. For over thirty years, Authentic Movement and Vipassana Meditation have informed her work and allowed her to be informed by the work. Jean now commits primarily to writing poetry and creating installations. Geographically, the trajectory goes: Houston, Eugene, Austin, Taos, Portland, Boulder, and now Santa Fe. Here, as one of the artists-in-residence at El Zaguan, she is presenting her first gallery work in a new medium. This show is dedicated to her grandfather Russel J. Sherman, who invented the first plastic injection molding machine.

The show runs through May 28.