Escape Plan, 2012
Drafting compass, drywall, motor, hardware

Exhibited in Acceleration, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX, 2013

Press: “Acceleration at Dallas Contemporary’s Alive for 35 Spans Generations”, Betsy Lewis, Dallas Observer, November 11, 2013

A drafting compass turns on a rod driven through the gallery wall, rotated once every thirty seconds by a rotisserie motor on the other side. A spring pulls the point into the drywall, so each pass cuts the circular groove a little deeper. Given enough time, the compass would cut all the way through the wall.

Escape Plan is about endurance and repetition: a small, pointless gesture repeated long enough leaves a real mark. Now and then the compass catches in its own groove and hesitates, and viewers find themselves rooting for it, a reminder of how quickly we empathize with something that struggles.