Love on the Spectrum 2023 by Marilu Swett
Love on the Spectrum, 2023, is a small “pile-up”, with which I was experimenting in the studio.
My goal was to make forms that could stack, lean and relate while also figuring out the
materials that could achieve this. The forms cozied up to one another. The prickly top form,
with blue fin tuna bones protruding, seemed to speak of love. The title is snatched from a song I
heard in the background, in the studio.
Snaffle, 2023 by Marilu Swett
The active building phase of creating these creatures gave them their volume and presence, but it was the months of slow and careful scrap collection preceding the assembly that determined their size, color, and overall personality.
Recycled material is the ultimate wild-card collaborator. The type of furniture people discard and the leather scrap available shift with the seasons and with new trends, leaving those factors as much out of my control as the scar tissue and body hair trapped in the body casts supporting these two characters.
The chair legs themselves appear as fragmented self portraits, as they’ve all been cast from molds of my own torso and limbs, but with deeper examination show distortions and signs that they haven’t been human for a very long time.
Materials: Chairs from the curb, Leather scrap from manufacturing process of over 200 bags, White cement
“In TEJIENDO MI DESTINO/ weaving my destiny, I wanted to created a larger than life knitting needles for a few years now, where a net is hanging with 25 small paper houses that represent the amount of places I had move since I left HOME (my parents’ house) and live in Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain and United States.
I chose the needles because my mother used to knit sweaters, scarves for us, me and my brother Juan Carlos and so many other things. That image of her is present in my memory and heart. I wanted to add that to this show that is about relationships and family and things close to my soul.
In AUSENCIA the chair is a symbol that refers to my grandmother and mother.
The empty chairs represent the absence of them but so present in me. I have represented that with the feet, heavy full of stories and learning that they left me, their roots. The feet are carved in stone like their strong stories that I will never forget. .
We used to hang around sitting in the chairs in the patio having a conversation while the clothes on the clothesline were dancing next to us drying under the sun. Beautiful moments.”
-Nora Valdez
“One of the most complex pieces in the installation is "Chandelier Siren", 8' x 4' x 4', made of Styrofoam and painted with acrylic. It hangs, slowly spinning via a motor, in the middle of the gallery, casting strong shadows on the floor and wall. I think that chandeliers are generally fascinating - they can be over-the-top, uber-pretentious, and great fun to look at. A chandelier-like sculpture (with no lights) was what I had in mind. The bone-like dangles at the bottom suggest something skeletal and ominous. The top part of the structure was designed to rotate along with the pebbly textured circles below and is constructed with a series of slats.”
-Adria Arch
EXUBERANT 2021 clay, cloth, wire, acrylic, epoxy putty, oil enamel 25x15.5x11”
Preparation for my show (Draw the Line), with work from the past 2 years, surprised me. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but the titles of many of the pieces revealed to me a need to counter the depressing conditions under the Covid pandemic. Names like “exuberance”, “small happiness”, “whimsey” and “ebullient”, attached to pieces months apart in the making, were clear antidotes to my worries of how the pandemic was unfolding. No matter that I concentrate on the material process in the studio; the titles say it all!
-Marilu Swett
Whimsey 2021 wire, epoxy resin, rigid foam, acrylic, wood, lead, enamel paint 55x22x25”
“Among the eleven sculptures, “Litany” consists of 25 painted bald cypress knees, their surfaces marred by burn marks representing the 750,000-plus Americans killed by Covid; “Songs of Silence” is a fence-like installation of corkscrew willow branches, felled by a microburst, then collected by the artist and affixed with carved wooden birds, painted asphalt black. The six paintings are half-imagined landscapes festooned with microscopic contagion imagery and glimpses of environmental havoc caused by Trump’s nativist wall. All preserve Lyman’s wit, wonder, and anti-autocratic manipulation of materials, but the overall tone is funerary and unsettling.”
Steven L. Jones, artist and writer based in Chicago (copyright 2021; all rights reserved)
Paul Manship, Maenad
On the autumnal equinox I finished the installation of a sculpture to celebrate this time of year for a Boston Sculptors Gallery group exhibition of outdoor works animated by light at MARS.
During my consideration of site options at MARS last winter, I was attracted to the spectacular location of the grape arbor on the edge of a quarry pond. Hoping that this fall would be a time for post-Covid revelry, I imagined that the grape arbor during harvest season would be an ideal site for some sort of bacchanalian installation.
At a subsequent site visit I learned that the large granite basin next to the grape arbor had once harbored Paul Manship's 1953 sculpture of a maenad dancing nude in a fountain. (see photo) Maenads are mythic female followers of Dionysus. The name “maenads” literally means the “raving ones”. They engaged in ecstatic, inebriated, and frenzied dancing. With permission to use the empty basin as a pedestal, I decided to fill it with a new dancing maenad and set her aglow her with wine colored light. She transitions from first blush to fully flushed as evening deepens into night. Hopefully she lives up to her mythic reputation.
-Nancy Selvage
PS Do note the anatomical association between a satyr (on a vessel with a maenad at the Harvard Art Museums) and the bunches of grapes hovering around my maenad.
“My uncle once told me he played games such as Scrabble and Words with Friends to improve his vocabulary and understanding of the English lexicon. How simple and ubiquitous these games are in North America, yet so often they favor the native English speaker who has the ability to sculpt words so perfectly with only seven tiles in their hand – perhaps, it’s just luck of the draw. If only the non-English speaker could somehow convince others to play using a dictionary that they themselves have read through completely – perhaps, a perspective re-defined.
This particular game of Scrabble is played using letters from a poem I have written, which is the only rule added to the original game of Scrabble to create this piece. The carrying case of this game is engraved with the genome sequence of an octopus. Scientists often refer to this creature as an alien, a word not unfamiliar with those who are immigrants, such as my uncle. “
-Kenson Truong
This is a carved stone flask artifact with a use that is unknown to me (special oil?) or it could be a knock off of an ancient vessel. My father-in-law, Dr. Tom Durant, brought it back from Iraq or Afghanistan. He traveled to many war-torn countries (Cambodia, Bosnia, Serbia, Rwanda and others) as a doctor providing refugee medical services. This is one of the interesting items that he brought back and it has a special place on our mantel. I know now that it was the inspiration for Hanging On. When I was making the piece, the reference to that flask was so deep in my subconscious that I wasn’t aware of it until I was explaining my process to Barbara O’Brien, who wrote my exhibition catalogue essay.
Laura Evans
Internal Blooming
“Internal Blooming is a new series of work from early 2021 that oscillates between the skeletal architecture of bone and the petal soft terrain of flesh. I have been incorporating porcelain and plaster forms inside nylon sheaths to create tension within boundaries. The rigid structures of fired clay provide a framework for soft materials to both drape and cling to. The dance between what is internal and external is provoked by the pulse of growth beneath the surface of membranes. This work dovetails with performance pieces in development where the human body moves through space and time among forms that are simultaneously cellular, and geologic. “
-Keri Straka
Soft Cell Division Study
“I’m currently working on multiple projects in my studio, but one that is particularly special to me is my upcoming exhibition: The Only Thing That’s the End of the World is the End of the World. This multi-year, collaborative project investigates the connections between sound, light, motion, and emotion. This immersive installation will consist of a cluster of hundreds of rotating, fragmented mirrored spheres suspended in the center of a darkened interior exhibition space. The cluster of spheres will be lit by a series of spotlights programmed to respond to orchestral music, fluctuating in brightness to the ebb and flow of the compositions. For the musical components of the artwork, I am collaborating with the brilliant composer, Sam Wu, whose musical works are complex, hauntingly beautiful instrumental compositions. At times the installation will be so dazzling that it will be hard to look at, while at others it will practically disappear into the darkness. Initially, the work was a direct reaction to the current political climate, and elements of racism, xenophobia, and polarization within our culture. Since the pandemic, the work has taken on additional meaning to me, becoming a monument to the vast human trauma caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The project will be premiered at Merrimack College (the institution at which I teach) when it’s safe to resume large social gatherings.”
Jonathan Latiano
February, 2021
The Expansive Baroque is a show featuring selected pieces from my most recent body of work exploring the intersection of Humanity and nature, with a focus on consumerism and consumption as a whole. These ideals are communicated through materials choices, namely single use plastic disposables and a variety of pre and post consumer trash products, as well as kitchy and faux luxury goods such as jewelry and pearls to further the narrative of illusion and deceit. The language of the baroque is interwoven through highly decorative maximalist motifs applied to classic french-victorian style natural history museum dioramas. These motifs are in direct disparity to the lowly trash-materials they are made from. The bulk of the show is a monochrome white, with the notable exception being a selection of three ceramic deer heads crowned with half a dozen horns and antler each. These were an exploration into the same themes of excess and possession. For more information visit https://sites.suffolk.edu/artgallery/home/expansive-baroque-zoe-friend/.
-Zoe Friend
FORCED TO GO
Reflections on her recent show, “Unmoored” at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, Sep-Nov 2020:
Detail
“The original Immigration Nation dealt with the theme of migrants and their journey to make a new home. I have used some of the sculpture from that piece in Immigration Nation II. This continuation deals with those immigrants who are now facing deportation. The ropes represent the lack of choice or control they face in their lives. May viewers have commented that they interpret the piece in relation to Covid-19; the tied together groups like “pods” of safety. The viewer is always free to interpret art in any way that touches them. That touch is the focus for me as an artist.”
-Nora Valdez
Currently Nora is working on the “We Heal” project with the Creative City Grant from NEFA.
The project originally was called Healing Space but because Valdez could not meet in person she started hosting zoom meetings. Those will be incorporated into a video installation. The project will feature a documentary and a book where Nora will showcase all the art she has been doing with the patients from Boston Medical, Dana Farber Cancer Center and youth from Urbano project.
Here is the link for the page that Urbano is hosting for the works in progress. http://urbanoproject.org/we-heal-nora-valdez
Coming up in 2021: Unfolding Roads at Fountain St Fine Art, Boston featuring
Alexandra Rozenman + Nora Valdez
February 3–February 28, 2021
SoWa First Friday Art Walk: Friday, February 5, 2021 | 5–8PM
Visit www.fsfaboston.com for current operating hours
BOSTON, MA – Beginning February 3, 2021, Fountain Street Gallery will exhibit “Unfolding
Roads,” featuring painting and collage by Alexandra Rozenman and sculpture and drawing by
Nora Valdez. The artists have traveled through time and across continents—Rozenman is
originally from the Soviet Union and Valdez from Argentina. Their respective journeys and
powerful artistic visions cross paths here in SoWa. The works in this exhibition are inspired by
the arduous road that immigrants travel and the related search for belonging, rootedness, and
home.
“I had been a few days away from installing an exhibition at Michigan Technological University, when the lockdown started. We postponed the show, and are hopeful about 2021. The exhibition organizers have been great, and we talk regularly. Boxes of my work and 4 mannequins still out there in the Dean’s office! In some ways, a postponed show is a dream come true. All the things I wanted to add, change, or re-do, I’ve been able to.
The work for that show is a series of transformational clothing responding to climate change, and it’s been interesting how the ideas from that series lent themselves to what I’m making recently, in response to the pandemic. I’m pleased with how quickly the Roxbury Dinner Jacket came together. And it does address what you need for safety and socially distancing: a high collar, a snap-in face mask, and seat cover for cold chairs. Like a lot of people in this moment, my focus has become local-centric. 50% of the proceeds from each jacket will benefit Haley House, another way to connect to what has been an anchor in my neighborhood, as well as in the South End. “
-Cori Champagne
Interference at the Cahoon Museum, materials are lightweight plastic and acrylic paint
“My installation, ‘Interference’, currently on view at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Barnstable, MA, features oversized, colorful, and interconnected shapes emerging from the museum’s lobby, popping out of hearths, tumbling down stairwells and playfully encompassing the Museum’s interactive family room. Responding to the building’s unique architectural features, my work twists, turns, spins, and leaps while exploring the line between sculpture and painting. This show will be up through Dec. 22.
On Reflection, materials are lightweight plastic, mylar, and acrylic paint Photo credit: Will Howcroft
In the studio, I am preparing for an exhibition in March 2021 at the Brattleboro Art Museum called On Reflection.Moving sculptural forms constructed of reflective lightweight plastic will play off of one another creating an immersive experience that is both transporting and provocative. Suspended from the ceiling and walls, On Reflection’s elements will be constantly, quietly moving, as is the viewer, around and through the sculptures, a meditation on change.”
-Adria Arch
“Since January 2020, I have been making many tiny drawings to assemble my new piece, as well as doing research on it. My research focuses on how the exploration of sexuality for women under specific circumstances such as war and the pressure of conservative societies can cost them trauma and sometimes even their lives. My research includes reading books, interviewing people, searching the internet to find more narratives. I am interested in exploring the complex panoply of forces of gender, sexuality, and social values which have caused past and current injustice.
I have interviewed several people, including three females who remembered and talked about the same honor killing that happened in their community. Also, I have read several books like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “Lost Children Archive'' by Valeria Luiselli. I was curious to know how authors developed the forms and concepts to bring awareness to their audiences. Now, I am working on finding more female symbols and myths to integrate them into the drawings for my current pieices.
During the pandemic, I feel lucky to have two cats, Zoe and Mirza, accompanying me while working on my project. :):)”
-Roya Amigh
“The past few months during the onset of the pandemic have been a time for me to hunker down in my studio for long hours each day, as well as to explore new materials and creative ways to escape the tedium of lockdown. As art imitates life, my current work reflects what is happening in the world around me. With the virus looming, the ceramic sculptures I’ve created since March seem to be, in a very metaphorical way, about conquering aggression and challenge (“Monkey on My Back”, Got the Bull by Its Tail”). They are presently drying slowly in my studio as they await firing in the kiln and additional intricate graphite pencil drawing on their surfaces.
As the pandemic forced schools to shut down, it was not always possible for certain media, such as ceramics, to move from the studio to online classes. I needed to switch gears from the usual figurative ceramic sculpture class I had been teaching at Harvard Ceramics and offer a “non-clay” class to accommodate home work spaces. In an effort to encourage students to remain creative and generate ideas while they were out of the studio, I began teaching “Sculptural Ideas in Paper Construction”. Apart from enjoying the company of my students in the Zoom classroom, teaching this new material has expanded the creative scope of my studio practice and pushed me to think in exciting new ways. It’s been an unexpected and delightful journey with my students during a time when we’ve all needed to stay close to home.”
-Claudia Olds Goldie
Plarn Art
By Michelle Lougee, Arlington’s Artist in Residence
It’s mid-June and I’m sitting in my studio surrounded by soft, colorful sculptural shapes created by community members during my 8-month residency with the Arlington Commission for the Arts & Culture. Diverse volunteers – some accomplished crafters and others complete beginners – have crocheted more than 250 pieces – blue “bowls”, orange and green tubes, multi-colored funnel shapes, and large base forms. They used “plarn” – yarn created by cutting up single use plastic bags, and the pieces are components for larger sculptural works that I have started to assemble for installation on the Minuteman Bikeway.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when Cecily Miller, Arlington’s Public Art Curator, approached me with a proposal for a collaborative public art project for Pathways 2020. My current work was prompted by learning about the horrors of ocean plastic pollution 15 years ago. It is also inspired by the qualities of natural forms – whether seed pods, nests, and ocean creatures or the microscopic organisms found in a drop of water. I transform plastic bags into biomorphic forms that draw parallels between plastic use and its effect on our environment. This is a labor-intensive process, and I am used to working alone. An artist-in-residence model offered an energizing opportunity to enlist a whole community in order to expand both the scale of my artwork and the impact of the message that we must reduce plastic to protect the environment.
Despite the impact of COVID-19, so many people have generously joined in. The project enlisted a wide spectrum of community members. For many, participation was simply collecting and donating their plastic bags- over 1000 when we lost count! Others became plarn experts, meticulously cutting bags into loops and stringing them together into neat skeins and balls. For another group, it was learning to crochet for the first time, following a simple pattern and having the success of making specific shapes. Finally, a group of accomplished crafters were essential partners; they not only made elements for the sculptures but taught their neighbors how to crochet. I am grateful to everyone who contributed!
When the pandemic hit, all of the community building and programming that Cecily and I worked so hard on was canceled and everything was put on hold. People have adjusted and are still producing parts for the sculptures. I’ve been able to deliver pre-pandemic plastic bags from my own stash to some people, and both Cecily and I have picked up completed work from all over the town. I’ve been designing the final structures. Part of my process is to make custom wire supports for each soft component so that it holds its three-dimensional shape. Once wired, the components can be assembled into the sculptural pieces ready for installation.
Recently I've been walking on the Bikeway with Cecily and project advisor Lorri Berrenberg to determine which specific trees will “host” the finished sculptures. Many of the forms are inspired by freshwater microorganisms that are in Spy Pond. I have selected twelve sites along the Minuteman near Spy Pond, between The Kickstand Cafe and Linwood Street.
I hope that all of the participants and contributors will take pride in the end result of this long-term project. I am so grateful for all of their time, effort, and support. This vibrant community and process has taught me a great deal, and I will miss working with everyone, but hope the finished installation will offer a happy reminder of our collaboration and a hopeful message of what we can accomplish working together.
Michelle’s Artist-in-Residence project was funded by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Friends of the Fox Library, the ACAC Grants Committee as well as individual contributions and funds raised from the 2019 Chairful Where You Sit. Join us for an artist talk at 13 Forest Gallery date to be determined. For more information http://artsarlington.org/artist-in-residence/
“I mounted my solo show, "Patient Earth", last summer, since then I have experimented with new media (resin) and revisited some old (perforated aluminum). My newest hanging pieces are dancing figures, set into motion with fish weights. A tango or waltz makes for an apt accompaniment. This aerial work is unlike the heavy glass globes of last summer's solo show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.
But one glass globe did float through the summer on the reflecting pool at the Fuller Museum in Brockton. This floating model earth uses data to draw attention to climate refugees.
In June I delivered my celebratory wheelchair to the Edward M Kennedy Institute in South Boston. It is in honor of Congressman Jim Langevin, the first quadraplegic in Congress. The show is inspired by Shirley Chisholm's line "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair". 20 chairs by 20 artists, honoring "trailblazers" like Chisholm.
In early September, I followed my fascination with glass by attending Pilchuck Glass School in the Pacific Northwest. It was an invigorating experience.
I moved from Brewster to Falmouth this summer, this prompted the quest for a new studio. Leaving an old large studio to 2 smaller spaces requires agile accommodations and reordering of priorities
Under lockdown, I have been using 2-d weather maps cut from the NYTimes to form 3D weather representations, showing sinuous cold and warm fronts. These are evolving into Rube Goldberg-esque weather machines. “
-Sally Fine
Studio shot
“Up until March 17 this year, when Massachusetts residents were told to stay at home due to COVid-19, the work in my studio had been on a roll. I couldn't wait to get back into the studio! Now that I am working at home, the progress has been bumpier, but still fruitful.
Stance
What’s new is that since my last exhibition at BSG (May 2018) when some of the sculptures had patterned surfaces of leather, felted wool and rubber, the current sculptures have been getting “undressed”!
Baboon
The surfaces of the current work feature a stripped-down nakedness. I have been looking at vessels of ancient and contemporary cultures that employ human and animal forms. I’ve been thinking a lot about how an interior life or spirit may be embodied in the exterior form. I’ve been including spouts, mouths, handles, arms and feet that add humor and raise questions about the function of these vessels.
I’m a Little Teapot
As in previous work of mine, the tactile quality of the “skin” is important, there is a dynamic of inside vs outside exemplified by a sculpture that contains space while occupying space. “
-Laura Evans
