Graduate Studies

Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design (MA, MDes and MFA)

Elizabeth Lopez

Spinning through Life - The Dish

Allegorical markings of our lives as we start fast, travel through life and eventually stop moving. A durational participatory work, spinning cast metal portraiture tops (based on facial profiles) on a suspended dish that spins and swings as well, referencing the orbit of our planet in space. This work was exhibited April 2019 in "A Rare Few" group exhibition at Sloss Furnaces, Alabama, USA.

“The shift beyond simply the experience of movement and duration towards the additional element of traces first emerged when I spun an iron cast top on the surface of the repurposed satellite dish and I was enthralled by the trails gouged in. The spirographic marks record the curls within curls, the wobbles, the recoveries, and topples, as well as errant stabilization phases of a spin. For each spin is different, strengthening the analogy of the spin for a lifetime – the emerging pattern depends on position, pull strength, length of cord, or hand position, the bumps or pits of the surface, perhaps a piece of grit and what appears as chance. The metal carries a layering of its history in plain view, like a haphazard arrangement of tree rings, and with enough spins, earlier records are obliterated by the accumulating palimpsest.”