Janelle Iglesias
Artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center
May – June 2010
“While I work in a variety of media, my practice has always been grounded in using found and familiar objects. I’m interested in their life span, the stories they tell and how we interpret them. Why are we drawn to some objects and not others? Much of my curiosity lies in the fluctuating value and meaning of objects and their materiality when displaced from their source. Severed from a previous utilitarian or emotional function, I’m interested in how they can be reused and reappropriated in new contexts. I see a practice of reuse as having particular significance to the poetics and theories of everyday life. This strategy provides an opportunity to subvert the rituals, representations and prescribed values that are subconsciously inherited and/or imposed upon us. My practice is a conscious decision to challenge cycles of consumption and waste and to create work through a defiant and inventive resourcefulness of means.
My recent projects include large-scale sculptures and installations pieced together from scavenged materials found in the neighborhoods where they are built. Through collecting, arranging and manipulating the everyday I create new micro-environments inspired by animal architecture (particularly that of the bower bird) and human contraptions. Each project is guided by my observations and interactions with a particular place. At the core of my motivations is conveying the chaotic immediacy of sensuous experiences. I compose objects that have an unquestioned position in material reality into fantastical constructions that suggest the mystery of an alternate one. While my strategies of formal invention range from creating complex systems to simple and straightforward displays of objects, I want my work to communicate a heightened connectedness of all things.
I want to make work out of everything. I want to make work out of nothing.”
Janelle Iglesias
For more information about the artists, visit here.