Diane L. Silver
- Michael Hanna
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Diane L. Silver is a mixed media, assemblage, and video artist who has exhibited mostly and extensively in Arizona. She is represented by Gebert Contemporary in Scottsdale in which she has been featured in four solo exhibitions to date and recent exhibitions include University of Arizona College of Medicine, Center Space Gallery in Scottsdale, Yuma Arts Center, Phoenix Art Museum, Yavapai College Prescott Gallery and Art Intersection Gallery in Gilbert. Diane has received a Vibrant City grant from the City of Tempe, Arizona, and a Giving Voice to Women Through the Arts grant from the US Department of State which supported a program she presented at Sias International University in Xinzheng City, Henan, People’s Republic of China.
Although Diane’s works are varied and she works in many sets of series, arguably her most notable series would be Water’s Whispered Words and Language of Solitude. Water’s Whispered Words contains assemblage as well as video art while Language of Solitude focuses on mixed media works and assemblage. Diane takes us on a journey where water is sacred and scarce, especially in her video work. In her assemblages, drips of paint covering intimate texts represent the fluidity and vibrancy of aqua while her video art represents a figure dragging empty water bottles along a shoreline with apparitions of a sustained forest gradually superimposed among the body of water. Living in a landlocked state with open desert such as Arizona seems to have had an impact on Diane’s psyche. Water is the primordial element and being derived from the experience of basking or observing vast bodies of water or even a shoreline can leave someone yearning for the sacred substance. These yearnings are reflected in Diane’s art.
The text in Diane’s works are almost unreadable as they are written in very fine print and scratchable cursive, an intentional application which suggests a sense of privacy and intimacy. Even her scribbles in the Language of Solitude series resemble text but upon closer inspection appear to be finely scratched abstract writing or expressions of contour linearity. Some of the text may be readable, but just barely. Such a concealment of knowledge is done conceptually to convey her personal and private interpretations of photo transfers onto the surface. Often shaped in geometry and blocks of form, similar to a paragraph, Diane expresses the nuance of reflective interpretation through text which appears to be applied in a manner of sustained meditation and mindfulness rather than as a piece of documentative art.
Clean Water, Clean Conscience (pictured above) remains one of Diane’s finest works. The video reflects Diane’s yearning for water as well as expressing metaphorical attributions towards sustainability, human impact, and ecology through depictions of water bottles being dragged along on a shoreline, stringed together. The figure in the video seems to almost dance or act playfully with both the body of water and bottles as if dancing in a strain of invocation.
Diane L. Silver conveys expressive works through metaphor, text, symbolism, and apparition-like images. Her subjects and texts appear as if they remain in a perpetual state of privacy only to slightly reveal themselves to the audience to provoke us to solve the mystery of the artworks. Through a determined set of integrative techniques and conceptual applications, Diane L. Silver communicates the importance of elements to reflect sociological and psychological impulses in artmaking.
