In my last
trimester of in high school ever, each of us seniors were given time to go off
in the world and explore our interests. For my senior project I began working
at PAPER magazine but when I wasn’t doing that I was spending hours hanging out
with my art teachers and working on art that eventually went into my first real
installation. At the end of the term our school had a night were we each got to
display what we had been working on. This is my artist statement from the
exhibition which I titled Homebody:
“This project started with a simple concept of what home
means and what and whom it embodies. I think people often get frustrated by my
process. The way I create art is much like the way I dress myself and the way I
speak---its colorful, non-linear, and a
bit messy. I like leaving the wisps of glue from the glue-gun and edges of
paper not completely straight. For me, this speaks to the theme of home, a place that I think of as my
rock, or perhaps a place that’s supposed
to be perfect. My version is a little bit kookier.
“Homebody” was influenced by the
materials I had available to me in my house. The weaving canvases are the
results of tons of yarn and wooden spools I found in my grandmother’s
apartment. I think there is something special about saving all of the materials that she actually used to sew
with and transforming them, with the help of tie-dye washes and lurid fonts,
into something more relevant for myself today. Last year our school was getting
ready to throw away lots of old inventory and many of the books I saved were
about domestic rituals such as quilting, which became the starting point for
many of the canvases. Even old opera records have now combined with an old pair
of my shoes to become quasi-flower pots. I like leaving a trail in my work where viewers can see the fun I’ve had
with my materials. If I haven’t weirded at least one person out then I haven’t
created something significant.
Enter the
recreation of a dining room set and end with my dream dollhouse and enjoy my
interpretation of home…”
Each of
us students who created visual art claimed one of our school’s classrooms for our
own to decorate for the night.
I set-up
a picnic dining room set with a fruit pie, red velvet whoopee pies, among other
mini-snacks for people to enjoy, but many were hesitant at first to try them
because they thought the food was part of the installation.
The flowerpot
I made out of an old pair of shoes and a record.
Follow me on Twitter @emmaedition
