Composed Construct
February 19, 2018 @ 8:00 am - March 30, 2018 @ 5:00 pm
Susan Beiner
Artist Statement
The most recent concerns in my work deal with making what is organic synthetic. In todays’ world, most everything is manufactured of artificial materials. This extends to what was once all natural. Genetically altered foods, cloned animals and the hybridization of everything. Clay and ceramic materials for the most part are all derived from nature, elements that are naturally mined from the earth. This has lead me to want to use additional materials that are a result of an industrial process such as foam, plexi-glass and rubber. My use of excess has evolved to issues similar to those in urban sprawl – the sense of being surrounded by a manufactured and engineered environment.
My current work displays a shift to ideas about installation, covering an expanse of space. Installation allows me to reassemble shapes, attributes, qualities and quantities on a much larger scale suggesting an essential connection to our physical space. My interest is fueled by elements of layering, fragmentation, multiplication, juxtaposition and complication. Intense brilliant color reveals an obviously artificial man-made reality. Color is swirled together in rhythmic sequences mirroring the activities of a microscopic sample or aerial topography. The encrustation’s are abstracted from real plant life, allowing the viewer to proceed into the interior pattern of a stylized manufactured plastic plant life. So as a viewer we are challenged by our own perceptions of what is authentic and what is not.
There will be an artist talk on February 16th, 2018. This event is open to the public.