clarissa tossin



In Future Geography: The Five Galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet, the lines inscribed in the textured weave recall radiating diagonal lines that cross rectangular maps: possible pathways of travel, or satellite routes maybe, angles of measurement and orientation, or proposed locations, destinations that are demarcated in ways that take hold of our unruly world, while at the same time shattering it into a starburst pattern. These works take time, as their fabrication requires a set of repetitive gestures typical of traditional crafts. Following the geometric patterns across the surface, there’s an implied choreography of body movements, in contrast to the rigors of mechanical production, or the relentless repetitions of the algorithm. (It may be important here to remember that a woven basket is one of the few everyday objects that cannot be manufactured by a machine.)

There’s an implied touch, a sensing of both the hand of the artist, slowly manipulating the cardboard and paper across the expanse of the work, and the imagined touch of the viewer, an embodied absorption of these textured surfaces. Tossin moves the spectacular photograph of the ultimate “elsewhere” into the zone of the tactile, taking it out of the instant into another temporality, one marked by contemplation and repetition. – Leslie Dick, Clarissa Tossin: Becoming Mineral. In to take roots among the stars, Frye Art Museum, 2023.


– Leslie Dick, Clarissa Tossin: Becoming Mineral. In to take roots among the stars, Frye Art Museum, 2023.

Future Geography: The Five Galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet, 2023


used Amazon.com delivery boxes, archival inkjet print on photo paper with lamination, wood 66 x 79 ½ x 1 ½ in.






index