2013 Chesterwood Artist-in-Residence: A Conversation with Rebecca Keller скачать в хорошем качестве

2013 Chesterwood Artist-in-Residence: A Conversation with Rebecca Keller

Keller is a recipient of two Fulbrights, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, College Art Association, and Grainger Foundation. She has created site-specific interventions in historic sites all over the world, including an 1801 anatomy theater in Estonia, the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, the International Museum of Surgical Science, and the former studio of Lorado Taft. A book about these projects, Excavating History, was recently released by Stepsister Press. In describing her process, Keller writes, "The artist is thinker, maker and researcher, someone who negotiates the terrain between private meaning-making and public symbolism. My work focuses on the intersection between art, audience, and the wider society, and includes everything from site-specific installations to embroidery, vintage fabrics and household cast-offs, text, collage and digital techniques." Keller's "site-complicit" installations organically complement the visitor experience in the period rooms of the Residence at Chesterwood. Some of the unifying themes and tropes in Keller's installation are: French's connection to notable figures in American arts and letters; images of veiling and unveiling in French's art; his use of allegory; flight; notions of nature as a path to the sublime; and his sculptural methods as both metaphor and artistic process. In French's study, an installation entitled Who's Who focuses on the illustrious people with whom French corresponded, as well as the diverse contents of his bookshelves. In the middle of the study, yards of silk typewriter ribbon flow from French's old Royal typewriter, curling and pooling at the feet of French's books. Stacked to create pillars around the typewriter, selected books represent three distinct areas of French's life and work: a set of Who's Who books that feature French's family, including his wife, daughter and son-in-law; volumes relating to the subjects of his sculpture, including Abraham Lincoln; and volumes relating to garden design, landscape design and nature. Related to this installation in the study, Keller's installation entitled Callers draws upon the guest books kept by French to create calling cards of the famous artists who visited Chesterwood or who were connected to French. Each card contains the name of a guest on one side and a brief explanation of the individual's identity and importance to French on the other side. These "calling cards" are available for visitors to take home with them. For Outlook, Keller has selected and affixed quotations by French and his friends on the topics of nature, beauty and transcendentalism to the windows of the Parlor and Dining Room. This removable acrylic text has been printed in French's handwriting, which Keller re-created from French's letters and other archival materials in the Chesterwood Archives at Williams College's Chapin Library. Wings made of sheer fabric adorn the service hallway of the first floor, connecting themes of nature and Chesterwood's place as a retreat from prosaic distractions, through a visual trope that French frequently used in his sculpture. This artwork, entitled Taking Flight also relates to French's studies of birds, as well as his relationship with his best friend, William Brewster, a prominent ornithologist who spent summer months at Chesterwood. Furthermore, with their spiritual connotations, the wings recall the Transcendentalist movement, with which French is frequently associated. In addition, Keller has incised a quotation that Emily Dickinson wrote to French in a large clay slab, comprised of the sort of clay French used for modeling. This installation entitled Cut / Carve / Mold / Cast demonstrates French's complex sculptural process for visitors. The quotation from Dickinson reads: "Success is dust, but an aim forever touched with dew. / God keep you fundamental". Keller was struck by the quote because sculptor's clay is indeed "dust touched with dew." Keller also has created sketches and collages, comprised of images of French's sculpture, which will adorn the empty servants' rooms upstairs. In all of her installations at historic sites, Keller demonstrates a keen respect for her environment and the fragility of objects, substituting reproductions for original artifacts when necessary. Her installations at Chesterwood have been created by artful arrangement, with due care to all objects. She arrived on-site with several of these pieces ready to install, in order to establish some of her themes immediately when the house opened to the public on May 25, while other pieces will be developed during her residency. All of Keller's installations will be on view throughout the season as part of Chesterwood's daily guided tours of the Residence.