Designer Profile: Rebecca Ward

This week’s post is a feature on an outstanding installation artist that I discovered a few weeks ago. Rebecca Ward is a Texas born artist with a very graphic approach to installation art. Ward's signature medium is tape -- be it electrical tape, duct tape or even masking tape! Her work has been featured at galleries and exhibitions across the country and some of her installations have even been commissioned for retail stores such as Kate Spade. I absolutely love the bright palette of colors that she works with and how the geometry she applies to 3 dimensional space almost becomes 2 dimension in quality.

Here is her artist statement:
My installations are site-specific works dependent upon the space they occupy. Utilizing existing lines, beams, and angles, each piece I create is informed by the individual site and its unique linear movement. Thus, my installations are inherently architectural. I choose patterns and shapes according to detailed measurements of the installation site. Ideally these patterns are numerically symmetrical or somehow numerically balanced, producing a dialogue between line and space. I initially began working with tape because of the broad range of colors in which it is available. Additionally, I have always been drawn to its unique textural qualities. I began making videos to create a dialogue with the tape installations. I see the videos as a way to animate the tape installations, and further explore my architectural manipulation of space. When using tape, rather than leaving evenly-placed two-dimensional lines upon a wall, I expand upon the material’s sculptural potential and bring these installations into a third dimension. When using video, I angle projectors and use multiple intersecting projections to create animated, two-dimensional shapes. This creates an illusionary space, a perceptual play of pattern, color, light, and texture that is realized by the viewer’s experience of, and interaction with the work.

tape 3, University of Texas at Austin

Seventeen is sharp, Charlotte street foundation/urban culture project

tape 4, University of Texas at Austin

Stella was right, Museum for image and sound

Photos and Excerpt is copyright and courtesy of Rebecca Ward