The title Casting Nets alludes to warp and weft, the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric: an organic, flexible, ever expanding matrix with points of contact and connection. Callis produced the majority of this work during the last two years bracketed by repeated artist residencies in Tetouan, Morocco; the first in July of 2017 and the second in May of 2019. At the residency he found himself, a postmodern practicing Anglican, cloistered away in a studio in an ancient walled city in North Africa during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan. As he worked, each day was marked by cyclical calls to prayer from ancient mosques reminding him of the Liturgy of the Hours in the western faith tradition. He states:
“Again, and again I find myself crafting narratives, stringing together pulled threads of personal history, faith history, and the history of two civilizations; one ancient, the other postmodern. The works in this exhibition form an alternative commentary as well as an alternative cosmology stringing together joys, cares, and sorrows in patterns distinguished by a stringent though not rigid, geometry.”
Images of weavings, nets and networks, ever expansive points of connections, micro and macro cosmologies. Both Christian and Islamic narratives inform the 21 works in the exhibition. This diverse body of work ranging from, works on paper, floor sculpture, wall installation, books and works on canvas. This work is about the many points that connect us and the expansive possibilities of more.
— Long Beach Museum of Art
