Artist’s Statement
Artist’s BIO
Setha Low is best known for her organic anthropomorphic sculpture made from multiple clay bodies, worn clothing, leather, wire and mesh. The theme of separation and re-integration of the human body/psyche pervades her ceramic torsos and pairs of etched pieces. Her use of blouses and tee-shirts painted with messages, over stuffed with mesh, often hung on wire or silk hangers create a sense of temporal urgency and spatial flow. Her interest in used clothing is influenced by the early work of Louise Bourgeois and her recent community engagement and art installation of “The Wardrobe” is a commentary on earlier feminist work that involves the viewer as an active participant. Her acrylic paintings, by contrast, filled with vivid colors, child-like graphics and strong movement reflect her love of German expressionism, elements of Surrealism and the 1948-1952 COBRA group including artists such as Karl Appel.
Artist’s STATEMENT
In my East Hampton studio I still experiment with clays and surface techniques such as smoke-fire using sawdust, seaweed and wood chips as well as raku and traditional stoneware glazing to achieve luminous results. While I now use a wider variety of materials and processes in each project, the meta-methodology is consistent. I work quickly to capture feelings and other primary processes directing my energy into the material, which is often clay, metal, mesh, paper, paint, fabric or plaster. While the subject matter of each body of work determines the materials and its form, I prefer materials that I can manipulate intuitively and that reflect the intensity of my handling of the materials as I work.
My artistic process is a co-creation between the medium and the imagination, with form evolving organically. Each project consists of multiple works on specific themes and meanings. As I produce the pieces, new areas of interest arise and lead to the next body of work.
Substantively, my artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues focusing on people and their everyday struggles. I employ both abstract and figurative representations to evoke different emotional and visceral responses.
I feel that art as a special form of communication that affects another person directly and non-verbally through the encounter with the art object or the engagement with its elements. Many pieces draw upon my experiences in other places where survival is tenuous, but also beautiful and inspiring. The work re-frames the everyday by locating it in new situations, covering it with unfamiliar signs and symbols to be reconsidered and reconceived. I hope to draw on the experiences of people in all cultures, times, social classes, and places. Rather than focusing on what pulls us apart, I want to evoke the universal problems and struggles we confront to bring us together through care, sharing and feeling.