Trey Duvall

RETURN/SWEEP investigates concepts of purpose and futility through repetitive tasks, material, and form. Relationships between tool and task, intent and yield, effort and purpose are examined with slow, metronomical movement and repetition extended across the duration of the exhibition.

Object specificity, repetitive labor and work are central underpinnings of the exhibition concept. The work demands sustained observation that provides a slippage between objects as a sign- the physical marker that carries some information, but not all- and what the object is understood to symbolize. Work being performed in the scenario operates freed from the burden of actually achieving anything and provides an entry point into a larger examination of purpose and purposelessness.

RETURN/SWEEP references the saccadic movement and fixations of the eye while reading. Saccades are separated by brief pauses, called fixations, where the reader can encode information about the text. The return- sweep moves a reader’s fixation to a new line of text. These fixations and movements are also present when encoding other forms of information. The repetitive nature of the cubes on the wall provides a cadence of form for the eye to sweep across in the gallery. Information, information, information, information. The slowness of motion in the kinetic work provides moments of extended time, where movement is happening but at a pace that is often perceived as still. Fixation on the movement reveals the movement.