A Word dropped careless on a Page

May stimulate an eye

When folded in perpetual seam

The Wrinkled Maker lie

–Emily Dickinson

Dickinson’s poem suggests many interpretations, fitting for a work concerning the long and unpredictable paths of symbols. A word stimulates—then explodes, its meaning multiplying long past the writer growing wrinkled and still. Dickinson offers the image of a perpetual seam for this infinite folding and unfolding. The seam is a metaphor but also a physical suture, implying that meaning emerges from material and from joining. Artists Gaby Collins-Fernandez, Gabrielle D’Angelo, and Carlos Enrique Martinez Ramos create joyful and layered works that elide linguistic pin-downs, generating pluralistic interpretations that elaborate over time and through the viewer’s imagination. 

Perpetual Seam is organized by artist and educator Rina Goldfield.