I am drawn to the monolithic. Large, powerful, and intractably indivisible,
these structures evoke permanence and gravity. I see these qualities in
monuments of pure form and material, masses of stone, and pieces of
architecture. Here, I have found a specific language that teeters between
the blunt and the subtle, the massive and the unimposing, the haphazard
and the refined. I am interested in incorporating this language in my work,
using simple acts and interventions to emulate the purity of those struc-
tures which I look to. There is an elegance in their moments of fissure and
a formal language in their entropy.

My work is impermanent, small, and brittle. It contains the disquiet of failure
and fragility— resting monoliths which might slip at any moment.

I am sensitive to those points where materials shift…those places of
touch and pressure. In those simple moments of contact, there is a
poignant sense of gravity and compression.

Throughout, a soft arch introduces a sense of flexibility which contra-
dicts the monumental. Although this act defies the strength and
rigidity of the monolithic, these objects still exist as such.

It tapers where it had initially toppled. Its rounded foundation meets
a sharp cube of stone and seems almost to balance there. The disjunc-
tion between the two shapes creates a sense of tension. There is a
sense that it may fall. It is worn, its edges have been rounded, and
surface notched.

Where weight creates arches of tension.

Audrey Travis

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