Beacon artist creates amoeba-like wood sculptures

Holding a battery-powered jigsaw in 100-degree heat, Allegra Jordan stood outside KuBe Art Center wearing safety goggles and sound-muffling headgear. Then, she sheared holes through a plywood board to create one panel of her interlocking amoeba-like sculptures. Six are on display at a new exhibit at Super Secret Projects in Beacon, Desire Melt, that continues through Aug. 2.

In the past, Jordan painted pictures and created 3-D work with other materials. The shift to wood began as drawings, some of which she embellished with color. After starting in the construction industry as a carpenter, Jordan is returning to the craft after moving on to the procurement department.

“I had these sketches with nothing specific, but they compelled me to do something big and physical,” she says.

Allegra Jordan with some of her work
Allegra Jordan with some of her paintings (File photo by Thomas Stringer)

She painted some of the early iterations, but the results disappointed. On display along with two oil paintings of wild horses from South Dakota, the raw works are untreated. The smaller ones, made of birch, perch atop a couple of cinder blocks; an 8-foot-tall behemoth consists of tighter-grained walnut.

One attendee at the opening reception on July 12 pointed out equine-like curves in one of the sculptures. Imperfections, like nicks in the edges, a splinter flap and the exposure of rotted plies by the cutting, are embraced, not glossed over.

“This is a test run because I’m not sure where it’s all going to lead,” she says. “I see this show as more like a studio visit than a final unveiling.”

Each piece consists of two panels with holes cut into the bodies and flowing appendages. A slot in the center joins them together to create four distinct wings. Carving and sawing seamless joints presented one challenge, but sanding the edges consumed most of the labor, she says.

Artwork by Allegra Jordan
Artwork by Allegra Jordan (Photo provided)

With the grain and the plies exposed, “it shows the natural side of a manufactured item, something more human.”

As co-director of Super Secret Projects, along with founder Diana Vidal, Jordan, 28, curates and helps run the gallery’s business side.

Reflecting the exhibit’s title, the sculptures’ curvy prongs seem to drip toward the floor “in swooping trills and loops,” according to the gallery notes. Though the shapes are singular and evocative, “consistency” is a goal, Jordan writes.

Detail of an artwork by Allegra Jordan
Detail of an artwork by Allegra Jordan (Photo provided)

In their current state, the works convey a kinetic quality enhanced by the shadows reflected on the walls (and even onto the sculptures themselves). Different vantage points alter perception and perspective.

“In process, the surfaces both resisted and gave freely to the blade, with the familiar push-pull tendencies of a desire that knows its completion will be in tandem with its loss,” she writes.

“Making these sculptures and developing the concept is a workout,” she says. “It takes a violent act like cutting through the wood to create something graceful.”

Super Secret Projects, at 484 Main St. in Beacon, is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
See supersecretprojects.com.

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Marc Ferris is a freelance journalist based in Cortlandt. He is the author of Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America's National Anthem and performs Star-Spangled Mystery, a one-person musical history tour.

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