AWKWARD: Kathleen McShane & Liz Rodda
(T)he intimate and discomforting process of trying to figure something out while doing it. I don't know if that's abstraction, but I know it's awkward. Finding a form is building these feelings (in this case, dissatisfaction, embarrassment, and doubt) into a substance —Amy Sillman, Notes on Awkwardness
As the writer, I'm not going to say, 'He's standing there awkwardly.' That's breaking the rule of writing-- show, don't tell. So I want to show how this for him, how in the awkwardness there is also a longing and a sadness and a confusion —Jacqueline Woodson, from a 2019 interview
The two person exhibition, Awkward, alternates between a rhythm of the moving and the static— between Rodda’s videos and McShane’s book pile “pedestals” with abject ceramic grids. Collaborative works include a loose grid of Rodda and McShane drawings attach to a leaning sheet of plywood, united by their shared color scheme. Collectively, Awkward operates as a loose constellation of the familiar and unfamiliar, forming vignettes that liberate objects and images from familiar conventions—instead embracing awkwardness.