Nicole Awai

Statement

vista
• a mental view of a succession of remembered or anticipated events: vistas of freedom seemed to open ahead of him.

There has long been the implication of some form of oozing materiality in my work. Since 2008, the ooze has been substantially black in color. I have come to understand that this black oozing materiality is in actuality a site of confluence - of our histories, our physical existence and the elasticity of time, space and place in the Americas. In 2012 I was awarded an Art Matters grant to visit the La Brea Pitch Lake in my country of origin, Trinidad. I was researching the possible influences on this ever present and persistent ooze. My experience at the La Brea Pitch Lake has reinforced my ongoing meditation on a radiant permeability. I think of this permeability through painting and installation. Vistas are momentary glimpse experiences.  There is a feeling of impermanence, of possible shift, change or impending disappearance, illusive physicality that may actually be imagined and ephemeral. Vistas could be windows to the past, the future or even moments in the present that cannot be specified.