velvet ribbon 2008From the private collections of Jay Swanson.
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"If I were to ask you to stay, I would embarrass myself. I want to, I always want to, but it means that I need you, that I need something, and I want to be something that needs nothing. I want to be solid, unflappable, impermeable, able to withstand all forms of loss with a stoic grace because that is the ideal. But I can't. I want to beg and sob and pound my fists and refuse and make sounds like an animal. But I can't do that either. I know about the inevitability of transience. I want to honor it quietly, with effort, while I shake on the inside with everyone else."
Molly Roth's labor-intensive installations consist of thousands of individual pieces, oftentimes in the form of bows, secured to walls and floors. Most recently her installations have been text-based, spelling out words and phrases in large, cursive lettering in a minimal and formal presentation. Regarding her choice of words, the artist states, "I am interested in revealing the transparency of language and indulging in emotional fantasies, as well as addressing the post-modern depressed subject as a new cultural paradigm. The bows are used to mask an inherently embarrassing or heavy-handed statement, making it more presentable, decorative, and benign."
Molly Roth received her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2007 and her BA from Portland State University in 2004. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including SAD: Illuminating a Northern View of Darkness at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, and My Strawberry Roan at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Her work can be found in numerous collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. She currently lives and works in Chicago.