Link to PowerPoint presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hLzS7lj6atvQhdsMHCRgFm4AYSUvn8CHPRv_jCnbczI/edit#slide=id.p

The Starn Twins

-Structures of Thought-

Doug and Mike Starn are identical twins that make collaborative art that dives into the subject of existence. They were born in New Jersey in 1961, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Later, the Starn Twins moved to New York in the 1980s and now live and work in Beacon, NY. Their art is featured in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many other places. The twins’ work ranges from photography, sculpture installations, and printmaking. Plexiglas, wood, transparent film, and nails are some of the non traditional materials the twins use to make their photo-based mixed media works. 

One of their most recognized body of works is called “Structure of Thought.” In it, the Starn twins use trees as the subject of their photographic prints that play with the element of light. The physical resemblance between tree branches and nerve cells is explicit in the twins’ work. Their pictures of trees represent the structure of thought because both are messy and disorganized. Terms like “branch/branching” and “root” are often used when talking about thoughts or ideas (“we are branching off to a new idea”/ “the root of my idea”). This connection is no coincidence to the Starn twins. Trees and thoughts can be representative of each other. Thoughts can be seen as natural beings– something chaotic and all over the place, just like tree branches. The connection between thought and trees can be seen in the Starn twins’ work.