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

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