ALLISON
ARKUSH
End of semester solo installation at MEDICI Gallery at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
“I want to work on developing this type of ‘typical’ artist statement, one that addresses my practice as a whole and helps the viewer enter/access the work, understand what I am asking of the them as viewer, without directing them explicitly, setting limitations, or demystifying the experience. I want the statement to tell the viewer what station to turn their radio to, so that the static isn’t so loud that it drowns out the song, but I don’t want to hand them the lyrics. Perhaps that is why I like using poems as artist statements. They do some of the contextualizing that we expect of artist statements, but they also introduce more muddiness, allude to new questions, associations and oblivions. The poems are art pieces themselves and will appear in various forms in my thesis. I want my statement to describe my practice; the artists in my cannon, the writers/thinkers, styles, genres and movements I identify with, the themes and concepts that appear most frequently. The materials and mediums I work in, have worked with, or plan to work with.”
︎ Statement
︎ Lexicon
“I want to work on developing this type of ‘typical’ artist statement, one that addresses my practice as a whole and helps the viewer enter/access the work, understand what I am asking of the them as viewer, without directing them explicitly, setting limitations, or demystifying the experience. I want the statement to tell the viewer what station to turn their radio to, so that the static isn’t so loud that it drowns out the song, but I don’t want to hand them the lyrics. Perhaps that is why I like using poems as artist statements. They do some of the contextualizing that we expect of artist statements, but they also introduce more muddiness, allude to new questions, associations and oblivions. The poems are art pieces themselves and will appear in various forms in my thesis. I want my statement to describe my practice; the artists in my cannon, the writers/thinkers, styles, genres and movements I identify with, the themes and concepts that appear most frequently. The materials and mediums I work in, have worked with, or plan to work with.”
︎ Statement
︎ Lexicon
A digital book combining a few months of works—some unfinished—as well as influences, inspirations, and source material. It opens with an artist statement from the time, from the early months of the covid19 pandemic.
Thanks to Jil Crary-Ross for digital design assistance.
︎ PDF
︎ Image List
︎ Lexicon
Thanks to Jil Crary-Ross for digital design assistance.
︎ PDF
︎ Image List
︎ Lexicon
Wash Basin Video
She’s Not Done Video
Composition in White Video
Home Studio Video
Home Studio Video
Trap(ped)eze
Three-RPM gear motor, antique trapeze, found wooden crate and iron cage, aluminum, wood.
The trapeze bar is 25 inches long, 40 inches from the ground and 45 inches from the motor when at rest.
An experiment in motorized kinetic sculpture.
A meditation on feeling trapped, stuck, stigmatized, alienated and/or alone.
Three-RPM gear motor, antique trapeze, found wooden crate and iron cage, aluminum, wood.
The trapeze bar is 25 inches long, 40 inches from the ground and 45 inches from the motor when at rest.
An experiment in motorized kinetic sculpture.
A meditation on feeling trapped, stuck, stigmatized, alienated and/or alone.
Wood, latex & acrylic paints, oil stick, leather straps, nickel-silver buckles, fabric from a hospital gown.
96 x 33 x 2 inches
I was compelled to make this piece by the research I was doing for my undergraduate thesis project, in particular Foucault’s Madness and Civilization as well as a 2014 article. The article exposed the abusive use of electric shocks administered to punish patients living at a Massachusetts mental hospital, Judge Rotenberg Center. There was also a video of an autistic patient being strapped to a board and shocked over 30 times. He was being punished for his inability to suppress self-harming tendencies and repetitive rhythmic body movements, which are both behaviors exhibited by many people on the Autism Spectrum.
One reason I choose to include this piece was to represent my earlier work and serve as a reference point for considering the evolution of my practice.
[Article:Burkholder, Amy, and Anna Werner. "Controversy over Shocking People with Autism, Behavioral Disorders." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 20]
︎ Lexicon
96 x 33 x 2 inches
I was compelled to make this piece by the research I was doing for my undergraduate thesis project, in particular Foucault’s Madness and Civilization as well as a 2014 article. The article exposed the abusive use of electric shocks administered to punish patients living at a Massachusetts mental hospital, Judge Rotenberg Center. There was also a video of an autistic patient being strapped to a board and shocked over 30 times. He was being punished for his inability to suppress self-harming tendencies and repetitive rhythmic body movements, which are both behaviors exhibited by many people on the Autism Spectrum.
One reason I choose to include this piece was to represent my earlier work and serve as a reference point for considering the evolution of my practice.
[Article:Burkholder, Amy, and Anna Werner. "Controversy over Shocking People with Autism, Behavioral Disorders." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 20]
︎ Lexicon
Discarded rolling office chair anchored into hyrdocal cast from a mold of a wrought iron fence. Nighttime images include a chalky scribble-like mark on the surrounding ground, the mark was left by the hydrocal base of the fence dragging along the ground.
Fence square measures 23 x 23 inches.
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Fence square measures 23 x 23 inches.
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