COURTNEY STOCK
RAY
301 Gallery
COVID-19 has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States and millions of people worldwide. Numbers of this size can feel abstract, transforming a large group of individuals into an anonymous conglomerate. Through Ray I seek to commemorate the people who have died as a result of the coronavirus as well as translate the unending data into visual form.
Ray is not a traditional or austere memorial and instead full of light and color. Long strands of faceted beads speak to our interconnectedness and the lasting impact each human has on the world around them. Each bead represents a person who has been lost to COVID-19 within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As of January 19, 2021, when this statement was completed, the state’s official death count was 13,705. The true death toll from the disease is widely understood to be much higher.
While Ray commemorates those lost, it is also an offering to their survivors, intended as a site for mourning, reflecting, and remembering. I utilized materials that conduct color and light in the service of cultivating beauty, wonder, and pleasure, a visual panacea for this tragic moment in our collective history.
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Courtney Stock (B. 1987 Malden, MA) is an artist based in Boston, MA. Throughout her work, Stock explores material juxtapositions as a way of discussing duality, identity, and shared humanity. Stock draws her materials from traditional realms of painting, sculpture, textile, and craft, though approaches them intuitively and divergently, resulting in the creation of hybrid objects. In her series of fiber sculptures, Stock forms hand-dyed silk and wool into shapes reminiscent of bodies or clouds, later embellishing their porous surfaces with beads or rope. In another series of woven paintings, Stock riffs off the traditional grid and weaves together cut fragments of former works, made from linen or acetate, assembling them into new mended wholes. Frequently crafting subtle hints, whether at representation, humor, or collective experience, Stock ultimately seeks a multiplicity of expression.
“Making my work feels analogous to life itself – an act of creation, configuration, reconfiguration – an act of destruction and reconstruction, paradox” – Courtney Stock
Stock’s work has been featured in recent group exhibitions such as, Nine: A Quiet Stand, Forsberg Art Gallery, Longview, WA; Creating in COVID: an online exhibition curated by Rachel Kay; and Everyday in August: a virtual exhibition by bosscritt. Her work has also been exhibited at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Fort Point Community Arts Gallery, Boston, MA; and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala, India. Stock has participated in residency programs including the Inside / Out Art Museum, Beijing, China, and the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. She earned a B.A. in Visual Arts from Bowdoin College, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from San Francisco Art Institute, and an M.F.A from Massachusetts College of Art & Design.
