Untitled (Nightstand) @genaresthesis - Tumblr Blog

Untitled (Nightstand/Strike Gently)

Mixed media, 16" x 16"

Bronx, NY

June 2014

During the year, my thesis shifted from staging a live social event in the gallery to making records of such interactions. The change came about when I began working on the drawings to complement and contrast with the sculptures. I became more interested in making a record of people coming together in a medium that would allow for more control.

Through drawing and sculpture, I considered how personal recollections are made. The black and white charcoal drawings are reflections of how we construct and reimagine memories through blatant erasures, redrawing, and changes in perspective. Each drawing is assembled from various sources, including photographs. The drawing of the table lies flat on a six inch platform, reorienting the table to its original spatial context, and conversing with the wall-mounted sculptures above. Together they evoke the continuous process of memories, and the way people come together on multiple occasions or through different points of view.

Both sculptures are composed of found objects assembled on tabletops, one a nightstand and the other a dining room table. Each sculpture suggests a specific moment within the drawing. Daniel Spoerri’s “tableaux-pieges” influenced the decision to mount the sculptures on the wall. This repositioning turns the sculptures into records, rather than functional tables or objects with which the viewer can physically interact. While Spoerri allowed chance to dictate the composition of each table, however, these sculptures are deliberately composed.

#artist statement #art thesis