About this Artwork

This work is part of a series called Space interrupted.

Conceptually, “Space interrupted” refers to structures and systems that connect and separate individuals or groups of individuals.

Compositionally, McCagg is playing with the effect of introducing new elements that should not fit but which in fact complete the image. Here, she is thinking of shifts in one’s perception at the moment of contact between 2 things. For instance, standing in nature at the edge of a canyon when the cloud cover moves in and changes the whole visual experience, noticing a shift in the wind or becoming aware of someone behind you.

One of her great teachers, Pablo Picasso, uses this idea brilliantly. In his oil on canvas, Boy Leading a Horse, Paris, 1905-1906, there is one salmon-orange-colored shape in the bend of the horse’s neck that seems incongruous with the rest of the painting, but is the mark that binds the entire composition and serves as a focal point for entering and leaving the image.