Islands of Memory features all new works by Darlene Charneco in her signature resin, nails, and mixed media panels that draw on a number of sources, including network theory, geographic information systems, video games, virtual worlds, childhood toys, and educational tools. It is a continuation of the artist’s explorations into how we think, learn, and remember.
Islands draws on a literal understanding of Charneco’s background and identity: Puerto Rico and Long Island as the locations, homes, and homelands that conform and shape her being. Metaphorically, as is explicit in the title, the term relates to memory, expressed in the artwork as forms. She states, “…I feel a draw to extrude the spaces and at times have them be free sculpture. These clusters are like thought-forms…a chunking of concepts that I am trying to hold, mix, marry, communicate with, make tangible”.
Darlene Charneco’s resin-layered mappings explore social networks and the gradual reorganization of information on the web into shareable and intuitively navigable 3D spaces. She is inspired by the blurring boundaries between dream and waking activities, natural and urban environments, the implications of our rapidly increasing interconnectivity and the evolution of an accessible collective memory. Her work is featured in the recent book The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, by Katherine Harmon (2009).
Darlene Charneco | Islands of Memory
(see details below)
Bismuth City (The Empathetic Civilization), 2011, 48 x 48 in.
Bismuth City (detail)
Bismuth City
Deep-Sea Memory (Retrieval), 2011, 24 in.
Collaboration on Substrate, 2011, 24 in.
Collaboration on Substrate (detail)
Recollection at Sunset, 2011,
24 in.
Long-Term Memory Storage A, 2011, 24 x 24 in.
Long-Term Memory Storage B, 2011, 24 x 24 in.
Ocean of Infinite Memory, 2011, 48 x 48 inches
Ocean of Infinite Memory
Epic Tale of an Idea, 2011,
24 x 24 in.
Winds of Change (New Door to the Palace), 2011, 24 in.
Winds of Change (detail)
Interweave (Idea), 2011,
12 x 12 in.
Memory Palace Practice Circuit, 2011, 6 x 12 in. dia.
Memory Palace Practice Circuit, 2011, 6 x 12 in. dia.
Memory Palace Practice Circuit, 2011, 6 x 12 in. dia.
Wall of 12 x 12 inch works (all 2011):
MemoryHouse (Aloft)
Soft Landing (Ideas and Islands)
Alternate Spaces
Safety Archive
Memory Divers
Red Portal 397
