Head Space

Head Space is a concept that has been in the works in various forms for over a decade (there are several more adaptations in lucite and steel forthcoming). The idea originated in a larger painting that features in the form of an abstracted human head filled with blocks of colors, conveying the visual affectation of how ideas occupy space and interact with each other in the human brain.

In the sculptural adaptation, large colored blocks of resin suggest areas of thought, or mental concepts, and the way they interact together – like an Alexander Calder mobile, which implies the the notion that our ideas are not fully independent, but that they can impact other concepts as well as stand alone. The resin blocks are semi-transparent, allowing light to filter through the forms, lending to the assertion that our mental product is intangible, and that we can possibly see through one partially in order to view another, or that they somehow overlap conceptually as well as literally.

“Head Space” is the sculptural adaptation of a 5‘ x 7‘ painting made on burlap coffee bean sacks from a coffee farm in Hawaii. “I have always liked the Head Space painting. It’s a favorite of my own work, and I thought it could translate well in dimensional sculpture despite the fact that so many of the elements are unique to a flat, painted piece. In the painting, it is very raw and textural because it’s painted directly on raw burlap - no gesso or attempts to hide the texture. In fact, you can see the silkscreened graphics from the coffee farm through the paint. So the translation to a 3-dimensional treatment meant abandoning many of the physical traits of that piece and redefining how the thought concepts are portrayed in space. The metal head shape structure and the independent resin blocks that move both together as well as independently provide the sculpture its own identity.”

– Ken Womack