Necee Regis: Flight Patterns
Grand Staircase
June 8, 2002 – January 2003
Necee Regis's Flight Patterns, an arrangement of 25 images based on commercial jet airplanes, is the next in an ongoing series of installations in the Museum's grand staircase. The black images of airplanes are painted with oil stick on paper and then mounted on irregularly shaped masonite panels. The work is lent by the artist.
Necee Regis holds an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, is a recent recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and has been included in several DeCordova Museum exhibitions. She divides her time between Boston and Miami.
Rachel Rosenfield Lafo
Director of Curatorial Affairs
For the past five years, I've been making art based on images of commercial jet airplanes. In light of the recent tragic events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania I find my work has taken on new and difficult meanings.
Before September 11, 2001, I viewed jets as huge, sexy machines—crossing and crowding our skies. They also evoked within me a deep, unexplainable sense of longing and loneliness. Through the representation of this simple, familiar image, I tried to reveal the distinct beauty of these huge objects, while acknowledging the anxiety and vulnerability they bring to our lives.
After September 11, I see other dimensions to the work. The jets are possible weapons that can evoke feelings of anxiety. At the same time they maintain a formal purity that resonates with optimism. They are reminders of a time of simpler aspirations.
Flight Patterns refers to several things: first, to commercial flight and navigation routes, second to the pure art context of black marks on white surfaces, and third, to birds and the patterns they make in their annual migrations. My hope is that, from a distance, the viewer will see these pieces as having swooped in from the larger world. Whether they are seen as birds or jets, or both, whether they produce contemplative reverie or nervous anxiety, remains to be seen.
Necee Regis
Please join the artist for an informal artist talk on August 3, at 3 pm
photos: Ri Anderson
