ALLISON
ARKUSH
Blizzard Altar
2021-2023
Altar for First Blizzard, Winter 2021
Called Alter For First Blizzard, because I made it while I spent a weekend holed up working at school studio during a blizzard over winter break, the first blizzard of the season. It came together upon finding the small table waiting to be taken to the dump. The way the two sides fold up reminded me of triptych altarpieces. From there it came together in about 20 minutes using items, imagery and materials I revere in that studio. The elements are temporary to allow for future altar configurations to be born.
Altar for Absent Blizzard, Winter 2023
The final images of the piece were taken in early March of 2023 in the backyard of my Lincoln, NE home as I was packing my belongings to move west. The winter had been warm with hardly any snow. The sun set and drizzle speckled the surfaces of the piece, melting away the slip paintings as I burned its candle to the end and shared a final cigarette in closing ritual for this altar.
Found steel table, inkjet print of neolithic era clay bison sculptures in Tuc d’Audoubert French caves, manila folder labeled Psychology and mended with tape, brown and white ceramic slips, dried milkweed vine pods (one empty, one with seeds), magnets and magnetic hooks, beeswax candle, found tree stump.
︎ Lexicon
Called Alter For First Blizzard, because I made it while I spent a weekend holed up working at school studio during a blizzard over winter break, the first blizzard of the season. It came together upon finding the small table waiting to be taken to the dump. The way the two sides fold up reminded me of triptych altarpieces. From there it came together in about 20 minutes using items, imagery and materials I revere in that studio. The elements are temporary to allow for future altar configurations to be born.
Altar for Absent Blizzard, Winter 2023
The final images of the piece were taken in early March of 2023 in the backyard of my Lincoln, NE home as I was packing my belongings to move west. The winter had been warm with hardly any snow. The sun set and drizzle speckled the surfaces of the piece, melting away the slip paintings as I burned its candle to the end and shared a final cigarette in closing ritual for this altar.
Found steel table, inkjet print of neolithic era clay bison sculptures in Tuc d’Audoubert French caves, manila folder labeled Psychology and mended with tape, brown and white ceramic slips, dried milkweed vine pods (one empty, one with seeds), magnets and magnetic hooks, beeswax candle, found tree stump.
︎ Lexicon
