Debra Disman

Artist

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Canvas

SANCTUARY: Know Safe Space at 18th Street Arts Center 2025

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Hello World.
Welcome to Sanctuary.
How are you doing today?


“Sanctuary” / Know Safe Space expand upon my 2023 piece, K no W Safe Place with the addition of a hanging roof surrounded by an inverted “forest” of knotted colored cords hung from the ceiling in various arrangements allowing pathways to the suspended black sanctuary space. The installation will grow and change over time with the addition of these hanging elements.

Sanctuary: Know Safe Space, 2025, 10′ x 48″ x 48″, canvas, netting, burlap, cord, lace, ribbon, paint, wood

This installation draws upon my ongoing study of the groundbreaking practices of artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse using artmaking to transcend trauma; research into sanctuary movements and spaces and the use of textiles within these; exploration of the“quipu/khipu”, a record-keeping device made of knotted cords of assorted colors used in various cultures in the central Andes of South America; and investigation into the work of artists who have used fiber-based materials to create environments, structures and shelters including Do Ho Suh, Chiharu Shiota and Tracey Emin.

I will also engage in dialogue with others inside the Sanctuary space, informally videotaping these participants’ response to the installation and their immersion in it, as well as offering “interviewees’ the opportunity to share about their own practices, projects and practices, especially as they relate to 18th Street Arts Center. These short-form videos will serve as an informal archive of our present moment, the role of the creative process in it, and the support and sanctuary 18th Street Arts Center is offering to the community by allowing us to Know Safe Space. If You would like to be interviewed/dialogue in the Sanctuary please contact me at  debra@artifactorystudio.com

Video Interview with fellow 18th Street Artist in Residence Luciana Abait
https://www.lucianaabait.com/
@lucianaabait
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnlPJaaeuB8

Video Interview with Los Angeles-based Artist, Curator, Educator, Costume and Set Designer Snezana Saraswati Petrovic https://www.snezanapetrovic.net/
@saraswatioblak
https://youtu.be/ZCfAOdw27xk


And May You Know Safe Space…

NEW WORK in 2021: “Forest Through The Trees”

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I was happy to finally be able to have Elon Schoenholz Photography in to photograph works completed during 2021… fast away the old year passes…

Here I share “Forest through The Trees“, 15 x 42 x 12”, made of book board, canvas, hemp cord, ribbon, typewriter ribbon, acrylic paint, wood.
It is part of a monochrome series in black, through the colors of “black” are infinite, and change with light, material, juxtaposition, and how the viewer engages with the piece.

Comprised of two accordion-folded “spines”, the “book”, becomes a “box”, with a “door” that opens, expandable “walls”, and  painted canvas “pages” held up precariously with wooden dowels. The piece can be presented and contemplated in numerous ways, and begs a tactile connection, through all of us working in book, and perhaps sculptural forms in general grapple with how to do this.  How to have viewers engage with the work, participate in it, without having it worn away over time in the process…

We are seekers.
The Journey continues.

Happy New Year.

(exterior, closed)

(exterior, ajar)

(interior/exterior, open)