Kathy Bruce explores bamboo and other non-invasive organic materials, building site-specific works that have implied ritualistic connections to the land and that investigate climate, ecosystems, and plant and animal life. She also uses the figure and, more specifically, the archetypal female form.
Joana Vasconcelos: From Cutlery to Coração
There is a place even more exotic than the Museo do Oriente in Alcântara do Mar (Alcântara of the Sea), on the waterfront near central Lisbon, Portugal. It is the Unidade Infinita (Infinite Unit), the art studio of Joana Vasconcelos on the Tagus River immediately behind the museum.
Yoshihiro Suda: Carving Out a Distinctive Place
Was it a trick on the audience for Yoshihiro Suda to open his second American museum solo, at Honolulu’s Contemporary Museum in 2009, with a space that seemed completely empty? You might have thought that you’d stumbled into a gallery closed for installation, except that there was no equipment sitting around, the floor was clean,
The Site Generates the Sculpture: A Conversation with Haesim Kim
Haesim Kim is one of Korea’s more adventurous sculptors. Having studied at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, she went on to the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London in 1999. Kim’s involvement with the art/nature group Yatoo and its earlier manifestation, known as the Four Seasons, led to some very innovative sculpture and performance
Struggling for Centimeters: A Conversation with Christiane Löhr
The organic element in Christiane Löhr’s sculptures first captures the viewer’s attention. All of her constructions are made of seeds, stalks, and horse and dog hair, stuck to each other or directly nailed to the wall or support pedestal.
Everyday Monuments: A Conversation with Jean Shin
Known for her labor-intensive installations of everyday accumulations, Jean Shin broke new ground in Everyday Monuments, a commission begun in 2007 at the invitation of Joanna Marsh, curator of contemporary art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
Loose Ends: A Conversation with Tariq Alvi
London-based Tariq Alvi is quick to admit his penchant for pop culture. He recycles riotous effigies from advertisements, pornography, and consumer magazines in his installations, often reconfiguring them into collages. Through his paper-based art, Alvi meticulously digests generic and overlooked icons of our disposable culture, visually calling for a re-appraisal of material worth.
The Scale of Perception: A Conversation with Katrín Sigurdardóttir
Icelandic artist Katrín Sigurdardóttir uses scale to explore notions of land, space, and memory as well as the body’s place in a world that seems to be shrinking. Her popular High Plane V installation at P.S.1
Nothing Outlives Mortality: A Conversation with Kristen Morgin
Kristen Morgin makes shells of things. She embraces breakdown and wear and tear, traces of which constitute evidence of past longings and actions. Her subject is manmade objects produced in a distant or not-so-distant past: cellos of unspecified date, a piano that belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven, carousel horses with whiffs of the Belle Époque,
Ceal Floyer’s Special
A light bulb, a bag of air, a bucket, colored markers—these are some of the commonplace items that Ceal Floyer makes us rethink as we contemplate her understated, multimedia installations. Curiously expansive and lingering in their effect, these conceptual, perceptual time-release capsules are far more ponderous to describe verbally than to “get” visually; they inspire
