Christopher McNulty
Gallery Affiliations: Saltworks
Region: South
My recent work explores the problem of knowledge and the limitations of Reason as a means of understanding both the internal and external world. In particular, I am interested in the mundane ideals that we encounter in our day-to-day lives, and how they structure our understanding of our physical, intellectual, and emotional worlds. In my work, I attempt to achieve these ideals through simple, repetitive, and labor intensive projects, which are drawn from the fundamental processes of science and mathematics: quantification, addition, division, measurement, mapping, and reproduction. The resulting processes - which range from the drawing of perfectly straight lines to the mapping of language and the body -are part lab experiment and part meditation. The work is produced as I attempt to perform these processes over and over again using only my hands, eyes, and basic tools. The resulting object stands as a record of my process of striving to achieve perfection, and having that desire frustrated over and over, despite the knowledge that the ideal was unachievable to begin with.