MixedMedia

In memoriam

Perhaps more later…

While in New York recently for a “Greening the Arts” symposium [see below], I had the very good fortune to meet an artist, preservationist, and self-described “recycling fanatic” Victoria Romanoff. Touring her converted firestation – which serves as her home, studio, and office – I was struck by how full and well-lived her life is, a life reflected in a rich, multilayered perspective so richly conveyed in everything that she produces. The title of this post is inspired by what little I gleaned of her life and work and our shared interest in cities and towns, and our efforts to incorporate their influence into our artwork.

Victoria has this eye for the scuffle, bumps, and scrapes of life that are bound up in a scrap of wood or painted façade alike. Her materia prima is the detritus of decline – joints, pulleys, columns, slats, plugs, rods, handles, adornments and other objects salvaged from the waste-streams of the new-obsessed.

A group show curated by Ms Romanoff, titled “Haven’t We Met Before,” was recently brought down at the Thomkins County Public Library – I wish I’d been there in time to see it! Nonetheless, an exhibition catalogue is available online and I was able to both see a few of the works and get a better sense of the materials that compose her works during our visit.

Most important to me, I was introduced to the range of motifs captured in her dense works. I caught whiffs of the gothic, romantic and even baroque mustiness bound up in these very modern works (Constructivism meets Duchamp with a nod to Rauschenberg’s ‘combines’?). Here is her artist’s statement for the “Haven’t We Met Before” show:

I like to conjure up lost civilizations, improbable resorts, crumbling monuments, over-the-top architectural follies, opinionated statutory and other imaginary settings. Along with that, I enjoy puncturing pomposity and do my best to lead the viewer astray with absurd but hopefully humorous titles. My sculpture is always built from recycled elements: discarded wood, architectural remnants, cardboard tubes, old ropes, washboards and other flotsam and jetsam. The paper mosaics, as well, are reborn from scraps cut out of previous creations.

As far as I can tell, just about all of her materials could be found at historic preservation sites and dumps, which she gives new life through spontaneous composition, clever joinery, and uniform coating treatments. Another interesting aspect of Ms Romanoff’s work is that is serves equally well as functional and decorative works.

One disappointment: there’s not alot of her work online. You’ll have to meet her yourself and seek out every opportunity you can to find her works on view!

[Both images are nicked from the Thompkins County Library exhibition materials and the Havent We Me Before Catalogue]

MixedMedia is all about appropriation – the process of selecting, manipulating, integrating “found” works into new arrangement, compositions. So when I came across the Walker Art Center + Soap Factory = Festival of Appropriation, I was intrigued!

On Thursday November 29, Walker Art Center will host a film collage presentation and Circuit Bending Workshop with Beatrix*JAR (Free Admission, both events)… The exhibition will remain on display throughout the month of November. There are a bunch of great artists participating – take a quick tour:

Andy DuCett, Kyle Fokken, John Grider, Erik T. Ritter, Chad Rutter, Ian Sorlie, Scott Stulen, Michael Thomsen, Asia Ward, Greg Carr, Eric William Carroll, Greg Gossel, Brant Kingman, Suzanne Kosmalski,Cory McNally, Coleman Miller, Mari Richards, Sheryl Tuorila.

In getting ready for a small show I am putting up locally, I’ve been obsessing over the archetypes of journeys – and how any “journey” has a beginning, middle, and an end. Rather Oedipal: four legs, two legs, three legs… Anyway, its all a big swill right now though some gems are beginning to emerge. The first completed works – three of them – take a look at early 20th century exploration – in the form of “lost” diaries of a fictional adventurer.  The three archetypes I devised as the central features of the trilogy are a nest (birth), nails (work/life) and a bullet shell (death).  I found some old “exotic” postcards to draw from as well, to tighten the connection between the central archetypes and the larger story: the tropical maiden (“mother” – birth – beginning),  the young chief (“leader” – life – middle), and the ceremonial funeral hut (“death” – ending).

Each image has also been a wonderful opportunity to explore working with different textures – to find and combine object in various ways, to create “new life” for found objects and discovering the possibility of a story in every thing.  Dried grass roots become a nest,  nails sifted from my garden on sailcloth discovered on a beach in Nova Scotia, and sand left over from another art project combined with a bullet casing found on the street all become part of an enduring central narrative.