Marginalia Math

Dragu and Hall were brought together by two curators because they thought they had a lot in common. Since then, they’ve only been around each other a handful of times, but have been involved in each others’ lives.

“We’ve each had crises. People have died and gotten sick. It’s been a long time dealing with our wonderful daughters, relationships coming going and starting, and we’ve gotten through all these things together with words and images.”

The squares capture each woman’s daily struggles. They deal with aging and feminine sexuality, like in Hall’s series using satin and lingerie, politics, art and more. And the squares all feature a variety of media.

Dragu, who has never felt the impulse to express herself artistically through objects, enjoys the correspondence and sharing of ideas it facilitates. When she became obsessed with plaid, it soon started to appear in Hall’s squares too. And it wasn’t long before Hall’s love of polka dots, started appearing in Dragu’s work.

“She’s really good with stuff. Her stuff is gorgeous. Now my stuff looks like a drunken six year old’s.

With more than 2500 squares put together, the pair created two houses inside the Richmond Art Gallery made of their squares inside and out. Each artist has her own house, and their own wall as well. There is also a community wall where visitors can play with the squares.

Eventually Dragu would like to see the project develop so that they could create a home using both their squares together.

“It’s become more complex all the time…because it was a correspondence it builds its own energy and complexity. It’s like ping pong. It’s really hard to play ping pong by yourself.”

Marginalia: Getting out of the House will be on display from Thu September 11 – Sun November 16 at the Richmond Art Gallery.

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