Formal Wear
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Diane Simpson (b. 1935, Joliet, IL) isolates fragments of the everyday—the turn of a collar, the flounce of an apron pocket, a building facade—and transforms them into sculptures that exist between the familiar and the uncanny.
Working from photographs she has collected over decades, Simpson develops each piece through meticulous axonometric drawings on graph paper, using 45-degree angles to flatten three-dimensional forms before reconstituting them as sculptures that retain those same geometric distortions. Her drawing system has its roots in the spatial perspectives of medieval paintings, Persian miniatures, and Japanese scrolls, creating what she calls a “bird’s-eye view that results in a very immediate presence.”
Her material vocabulary draws from the hardware store and the domestic realm—corrugated board, medium-density fiberboard, aluminum, brass, linoleum, and galvanized steel, alongside everyday fabrics…
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Formal Wear
Press Release
Diane Simpson (b. 1935, Joliet, IL) isolates fragments of the everyday—the turn of a collar, the flounce of an apron pocket, a building facade—and transforms them into sculptures that exist between the familiar and the uncanny.
Working from photographs she has collected over decades, Simpson develops each piece through meticulous axonometric drawings on graph paper, using 45-degree angles to flatten three-dimensional forms before reconstituting them as sculptures that retain those same geometric distortions. Her drawing system has its roots in the spatial perspectives of medieval paintings, Persian miniatures, and Japanese scrolls, creating what she calls a “bird’s-eye view that results in a very immediate presence.”
Her material vocabulary draws from the hardware store and the domestic realm—corrugated board, medium-density fiberboard, aluminum, brass, linoleum, and galvanized steel, alongside everyday fabrics…
