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Amy Stacey Curtis

SELECTED WORKS
swap IV
2022
Wood, acrylic, vinyl, audience

Installation: approximately 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 inches (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm)
Nine, white, wall-mounted cases, each 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (31.8 x 31.8 x 4.4 cm) with each case containing 81 acrylic-painted wooden cubes with each cube being 7/8 x 7/8 x 7/8 inches (2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2 cm) (729 cubes total)
Signed and dated on back of one case in graphite

111322
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 11 x 11 inches (27.9 x 27.9 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35198)

111822
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 11 x 11 inches (27.9 x 27.9 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35199)

111422
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 11 x 11 inches (27.9 x 27.9 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35200)

11122
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 5 1/2 x 14 inches (14 x 35.6 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35201)

11422
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 5 1/2 x 14 inches (14 x 35.6 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35203)

11622
2022
Graphite on paper

Image/paper size: 5 1/2 x 14 inches (14 x 35.6 cm)
Signed and titled on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #35205)

number crunching
2018
Ink hand applied through typeset on paper with deckled edge in seven parts

Image/paper size: 2 1/2 x 10 inches each (6.4 x 25.4 cm each)
(Inventory #30775)

visage II
2016
Digital video

Over the course of a year, Curtis took video of 99 people including herself.  She asked each to count from 1 to 100 at the same pace.  Curtis gently squeezed each participant’s ankle 100+ times to convey the pace, then merged/super-imposed all 99 video clips to start at the same moment, all saying “one” simultaneously.
Duration: 2:44
Edition of 9
Signed and numbered on accompanying certificate
(Inventory #28543)

inversion II (from SPACE)

1,520 spruce posts, acrylic, oil paint, audience

10.6.12-10.26.12

In 1998, Amy Stacey Curtis began an 18-year commitment to art-making, a project which would culminate through 9 solo-biennial exhibits from the year 2000 to the year 2016. In the end, Curtis will have installed 81 large-in-scope interactive installation and new-media works in the vast mills of 8 or 9 Maine, USA towns. Each solo-biennial exhibit is a 22-month process, each exhibit exploring a different theme while requiring audience to perpetuate its multiple installations. “Without participants my work is incomplete.” The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 Individual Artist Fellow for Visual Art, Curtis has committed to this temporary sculptural work to convey that we are a part of a whole, that everyone and everything is connected and affects.

inversion II (from SPACE)

1,520 spruce posts, acrylic, oil paint, audience

10.6.12-10.26.12

Alternate View

Before opening, Curtis installed posts in convex form. Using floor chart provided, audience transferred wood, transforming installation into concave form. Once concave form generated, installation was complete. (form at start of exhibit: 47.5″x156″x156″; form at end of exhibit: 47.5″x156″x156″)

channel I (from LIGHT)

1,080 plotter-paper cores, wood, conduit, audience

10.4.8-10.24.8

From Curtis’ EXPERIENCE and MOVEMENT, audience viewed tubes from far away, inches away, moving side to side, up and down, back and forth…Perception of light moved and changed with each participant’s perspective. (144″x84″x36″)

flux III (from TIME)

99 hourglasses, pedestal, labels, audience

10.9.10-10.28.10

One hourglass for each hour of biennial on 64-foot-long pedestal, Curtis inverted first hourglass at 12pm on October 9, 2010, marking start of exhibit. Subsequent hourglasses were inverted successively by Curtis and participants, one per exhibit hour. (each hourglass: 7″x4″; pedestal: 48″x12″x768″)

flux III (from TIME)

99 hourglasses, pedestal, labels, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10


Alternate View

12 inches

(installation shot from “Arise: Summer Group Show” at The Barbara Krakow Gallery, June 23-July 28, 2012).

Over the course of 3 months, Curtis asked 99 people to draw a 1-inch line without using a ruler, then a 2-inch line…through 12 inches. Then, she sorted these 1,188 drawings–99 people’s 1 inch, 99 people’s 2 inches…from the shortest length to the longest length. The first drawing uses the 99 people’s perceptions of 1 inch, the second drawing uses the 99 people’s perceptions of 2 inches… For each drawing, Curtis translated the perceived measurements into concentric squares. There are 99 centered squares per drawing, all 12 drawings on 22.5″x22.5″ 140lb archival paper.

labyrinth IV (from SOUND)

9 cd players with headphones, 9 cds, tape, audience, 10.7.6-10.27.6

Each participant asked to choose and listen to one of 9 cd players… (each player: 1″x6″x6″; each path: 576″x12″)

labyrinth IV (from SOUND)

9 cd players with headphones, 9 cds, tape, audience, 10.7.6-10.27.6

Alternate View

meniscus I (from EXPERIENCE)

glass, water, metal, plastic, droppers, audience, 7.7.0-8.15.0

Audience maintained nine menisci for duration of exhibit, adding water to installation when necessary. (72″x14″x6″)

meniscus I (from EXPERIENCE)

glass, water, metal, plastic, droppers, audience, 7.7.0-8.15.0

Alternate View

place (from SPACE)

1,080 slate tiles, acrylic, audience, 10.6.12-10.26.12

Before opening, Curtis installed tiles white-side-up in a 20×54 configuration. Audience each walked upon tiles to pause upon any single white tile of choice. Then, he or she flipped this tile before walking upon tiles to exit installation. Once all tiles inverted, or once exhibit ended–whichever came first–installation complete. (.25″x297″x807″, 20×54 configuration; each tile: ~.25″x12″x12″)

place (from SPACE)

1,080 slate tiles, acrylic, audience, 10.6.12-10.26.12

Alternate View

relativity II (from TIME)

9 chairs, 9 timers, wood, drywall, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10

Participants entered each of up to nine booths, attempting to remain in first booth for one minute, second booth for two minutes, third booth for three minutes, through to ninth booth for nine minutes. Each booth had optional count-up timer for those interested in accuracy. If participants chose to participate in all nine booths, and were accurate, they were in booths total of 45 minutes. (each booth: 96″x48″x48″)

relativity II (from TIME)

9 chairs, 9 timers, wood, drywall, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10

Alternate View

undoing (from TIME)

86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience

10.9.10-10.28.10

Curtis crocheted hour every day for year; tying yarn together from 36 large skeins so continuous. Starting October 9, participants removed yarn from form, placing undone yarn into plexiglas box. Installation was complete once “undone” or once biennial ended at 5pm, October 28–whichever came first. (form at start of exhibit: .25″x108″x864″; plexiglas box: 16″x16″x84″)

Photo by Luc Demers

undoing (from TIME)

86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience

10.9.10-10.28.10

Alternate View

undoing (from TIME)

86,617 feet of acrylic yarn, plexiglas, audience, 10.9.10-10.28.10

Photo by Kathryn Bean Davis

Alternate View

undulation III (from LIGHT)

36 mirrors, duct tape, fishing line, audience, 10.4.8-10.24.8

Audience instructed to walk slowly between two rows of mirrors where they observed their undulating infinite reflections. (78″x60″x756″; each mirror 12″x48″)

undulation III (from LIGHT)

36 mirrors, duct tape, fishing line, audience, 10.4.8-10.24.8

Alternate View

Additional Information

Amy Stacey Curtis (born 1970, Beverly, Massachusetts) is an installation artist focusing on participatory works. The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 and 2017 Individual Artist Fellow For Visual Art and the recipient of numerous grants including those from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Curtis has exhibited interactive art internationally.

Curtis initiates each of her works which are then perpetuated and resolved by audience. For each installation, Curtis instigates a desired vision through provided guidance. Then, by relinquishing these concepts to her collaborative audience, her work sometimes proceeds in unanticipated ways. These uncontrollable unknowns are likewise crucial components of her work.

From 1998 to 2016, Curtis completed an 18-year project, 9 solo-biennial exhibits of large-in-scope, interactive art in 9 vast mill spaces throughout Maine. In the end, Curtis mounted 81 participatory installations while cleaning by hand each historic space (averaging 25,000 square feet). Each solo biennial was a 22-month process exploring a different, predetermined theme, inviting audience to activate each exhibit’s 9 unique works.

After Curtis’s 18-year project was finished, she had been working toward new interactive projects for 5 weeks in her studio, when she was debilitated by a neurological illness. After 2 psychiatric wards, the start of severe movement and speech disorder, and 15 months of unknowns, it was finally determined that Curtis’s brain had been attacked by untreated Lyme Disease.

Since the start of her disability in March 2017, Curtis has been moving forward and exhibiting new interactive concepts with help from assistants, curators, and the arts community. Curtis works from Lyman, Maine.

One Wall, One Work: Amy Stacey Curtis

June 20, 2023
- July 26, 2023

Parts and Time

January 13, 2022
- February 24, 2022

Featuring works by Eleanor Antin, Amy Stacey Curtis, Bronlyn Jones, and Franz Erhard Walther

Annual AIDS Benefit 2019

November 30, 2019
- December 4, 2019

One Wall, One Work:
Amy Stacey Curtis

June 22, 2019
- July 26, 2019

Annual AIDS Benefit 2018

December 1, 2018
- December 6, 2018

Works are first made visible on the website and in the gallery on Saturday, December 1st at 10am.

All proceeds to benefit The Dimock Center’s Boston Pediatric and Family AIDS Program

Interchange

October 22, 2016
- November 19, 2016

Featuring works by William Kentridge, Paul Herrmann, and Amy Stacey Curtis

 

 

The Annual AIDS Benefit Exhibition 2015

November 28, 2015
- December 5, 2015



The Annual AIDS Benefit Exhibition 2013

December 7, 2013
- December 11, 2013

The Annual AIDS Benefit Exhibition 2012

December 1, 2012
- December 8, 2012

Arise

June 23, 2012
- July 28, 2012

Featuring works by Michael Beatty, Barbara Broughel, Amy Stacey Curtis, Annette Lemieux, Sol LeWitt, Josiah McElheny, and Bill Thompson