Clay Lohmann’s Camo Cubes

February 01, 2017 to April 30, 2017

Corvallis-based installation artist Clay Lohmann presents his room-sized fabric installation Camo Cubes. Lohmann has worked in a variety of media and disciplines. Since 2008, he has used cloth as a means of inquiry into issues of gender expectations and the marginalization of handicraft. Camo Cubes is constructed from enormous, modular panels that play on the popular “Tumbling Blocks” or “Baby Blocks” quilt pattern. Also known as the “Necker Cube” (named for early nineteenth-century Swiss crystallographer and geographer Louis Albert Necker), the rhomboid form that comprises this design is a familiar optical illusion and has been used by artists as early as ancient Rome. For this project, Lohmann used several variations of camouflage—a militarized, traditionally masculine print. The large scale of this work further complicates its definition: is it art to be viewed or a space to be visited? Camo Cubes’ architectonic presence invites discussion about the overlaps between craft, design, and engineering. The exhibition was organized by Danielle Knapp, McCosh Associate Curator.