KADIE DICARLO

Artists: Kadie DiCarlo & Gina Takaoka

 

Date of Project: Spring 2014

 

Location: California State University Fullerton

 

Materials: Artist's Tape, Twine

 

Rules VS Freedom is an installation project created by Kadie DiCarlo and Gina Takaoka in 2014, Spring Semester at CSUF.  DiCarlo and Takaoka utilized a vacant three-wall space in a classroom at CSUF, hoping to experiment with materials and system-based art.  

 

The project began with selecting three definitions out of Webster's Free Dictionary Online: three different definitions of the word 'Rule' and three different definitions of the word 'Freedom'.  These separate definitions would face each other on opposite walls of the room.  Rules were then created arbitrarily by the two artists. These rules would dictate each application of the material on the walls.  Working on two opposing walls, each artist visually represented each definition, according to the rules.  For example, every word in each definition would be visually depicted by a 'line', and each syllable would emit a change in direction of that line. The length of each line was up to each artist's discretion, however, ultimately each line stemming from each definition must end on the opposing artist's lines on the far wall.  The number of intersections that Kadie created on her wall were then added to the number of intersections that Gina created on her own opposing wall.  The number of intersections made on these opposing walls equaled exactly one hundred.  The decision was then made to create 100 intersections between Kadie and Gina's lines.  The lines representing Kadie's three definitions ended on Gina's lines, and vice versa.  Therefore, there were many moments of intense planning and teamwork necessary to complete this rule that the artists' created for the project's conclusion.

 

To further experiment with connection and highlighting of intersections, a final phase was put into effect.  Now that there were 100 intersections between Kadie's definition lines and Gina's, what would happen if all of these points were then connected a second time, with a continuous line that never overlapped on itself?

Yellow tape was used to link all of 100 points, however Gina found that this iteration of the system had failed.  The artists were not able to connect all of the 100 connecting points on the far wall with a seamless line without overlapping over itself.  This result is noted by a dashed line that refers to the last few points that were unable to connected during this final phase.

 

 Each artist was able to interpret the rules freely, which resulted in stark contrast between Kadie's line choice and material use in respect to Gina's wall.  Overall this project was a catalyst in Gina Takaoka and Kadie DiCarlo's future collaborations regarding large scale installations with rule-based systems.