
Oblique detail view of "Accolade Suite: V"
2011
Artist's Statement:
I work in assemblage and with it seek to produce
art that is strong and beautiful and strange.
My studio process bridges a lot of territory:
rigorous craftsmanship, a constant internal
conversation about design and forays into my
own subconscious---and therefore my whole
self---as I "audition" various oddments into the
assemblage being assembled.
A growing cast of characters populate my work
and have recurred over time: scissors, shells
(real and ersatz), buttons, fans, hands, circuit
boards, rulers, drafting tools, Jello molds, dried
fruits and seed pods, bones and various
frou- frou. They resonate for me. I don’t always
know what they mean but they have meaning. In all art, the whole must be greater than the sum of the parts, but in assemblage the
challenge is even greater since the parts have their own identities and implications. The design process that pervades all art making,
is thus particularly challenging in assemblage. Part of the allure, indeed my reason for doing it, is the symbolic charge and the myriad
associations that attach to even the most mundane object. I find that I am increasingly interested in formal geometrical relationships,
grids and pyramids, circles into squares, symmetry versus asymmetry and the rhythm and order of pattern. Underneath the medley of
surfaces and things there seems to be a square dance going on.
The craftsmanship and the clever contrivance needed to connect these things into compound stable objects is another of the
satisfactions and frustrations of my studio process (always combine an adhesive bond with a mechanical bond if possible…gluing and
screwing.) I love power tools, epoxy and sewing.
I want my work to be experienced on multiple levels, the "pure" level of design where color, shape and particularly texture, meld
into--one hopes--an object of formal beauty and delight and, at the same time, I want the viewer to be drawn into the parts and their
possible meanings and symbolic relationships with one another, to bring their own lives and interpretations to my work. I particularly
value the surprise of other people’s experiences with my work. If it’s any good, artwork should have a life of its own apart from the artist.
So I’m grateful for the permission given by Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell and Betye & Alison Saar and Miriam Schapiro
and Renee Stout and medieval altarpieces and exvotos and reliquaries, and mandalas and quilts---like every artist I stand on many
shoulders. Donna Bachmann, 2012