Mary Hood

For many years my studio practice centered on the idea of Silence as a state of mind, or state of becoming.  Exploring the idea of Silence provided me a means of bringing order over chaos by researching systems in which the inner mind could be quieted and stilled.  My research was rooted in religion, mathematics, philosophy, pursuit of knowledge and the physicality of working methodologies.  I came to understand that Silence, the stilling of the inner mind, could not be achieved if I was unable to truly be in the moment, and the most profound moments for me came through the physicality of working in the studio.   In my artists’ books, installations, prints and writings I sought to create a temporal environment through a cross-disciplinary approach, thus creating a sense of place, time, narrative, and experience. As my studio practice continued to grow, my ideas became increasingly more focused on the art experience and less on the artifact.   In 2000 my ideas turned to the abstract notion of Time, which, like Silence, is rhetorical rather than factual in its definition.  I do not perceive time as linear, but rather as a series of simultaneously cycles of varying duration. This perception is certainly a result of my installation and printed works where time, or being present in the moment, is a vital component to the overall creative process. Through research I came to understand that Time, mathematically and philosophically, is a measure of motion, which is reflected in our experiences and memories. The sole concept philosophers and mathematicians writing on Time have agreed upon, from Aristotle,  to Heidegger, to Hawking, is that Time only exists in the moment.  The past and future only potentially exist through memories and ambitions.   ~  Mary Hood