Session 7: Material Qualities + Experimentation
Tomoko Abe + Erica Stoller
Material Qualities + Experimentation
Monday, April 12, 2021, 9 am EST
Webinar Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84592197420
Webinar ID: 845 9219 7420
Tomoko Abe, Blood to milk, cast glass, wood, 2.5 x 6.6 x 1.5 feet, photo credit: Tomoko Abe
Erica Stoller, Studio installation, Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, 2020
In this session, Tomoko Abe and Erica Stoller will each discuss how the quality of materials and the process of experimentation are essential parts of their art making.
Tomoko Abe will talk about the relationship between man made objects and organic materials, how they seem to repel each other and yet, at the same time, can be integrated to work as one. Abe uses different materials, from glass, ceramics to paper, often appealing to their transparency to combine them seamlessly. Intrigued by the energy and spirit that exist under the surface of what is visible, is another reason Abe is drawn to translucent materials. Her work evolves through experimental processes of various materials, and each of these becomes the work itself.
Erica Stoller, “In my recent work I have been paying close attention to the common, yet often overlooked, landscape: not blue sky, hills and valleys, but utility poles, communication cables, and power lines. My referential, three-dimensional pieces are built of common industrial materials, often rescued and re-used, that are familiar to plumbers or electricians, but not to artists or those who view their work. With bright colors and linear shapes, the pieces are held together with string and wire, suspended from hooks or from wall to wall. In an unfamiliar context, the familiar materials may be difficult to recognize and then may encourage a closer examination of one’s surroundings.
Suggested Reading Tomoko Abe:
Junichiro Tanizaki, In praise of shadows, Leete's Island Books,1933
http://wwwedu.artcenter.edu/mertzel/spatial_scenography_1/Class%20Files/resources/In%20Praise%20of%20Shadows.pdf
Anni Albers, Material as Metaphor, 1982
https://albersfoundation.org/artists/selected-writings/anni-albers/#tab4
Catherine De Zegher, Eds., Eva Hesse Drawing, The drawing center and Yale university press, 2005-2006, pp. 50-117, 'Drawing as Binding/Bandage/Bondage or Eva Hesse Caught in the Triangle of Process/Content/Materiality'.
Suggested Reading Erica Stoller:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a book that I never stop reading. There is no objective truth. One’s reality is what you bring to it or make of it. Also, the element of translation comes to mind. Is the original more “real” than the work in another language? William Weaver, the translator, gets as much credit and is as much to blame as Calvino.
Tomoko Abe graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art and obtained BA in painting with First Class Honour, during which she also spent half a year at Escuela de Bellas Artes in Salamanca, Spain, on the ERASMUS scholarship. She has shown her works in many exhibitions both domestically and internationally. She was a recipient of the Bullseye glass residency in 2018, which culminated in a solo show in 2019. Her work ranges from painting, paper making, ceramics and glass, often with a theme inspired by nature, its decay and regeneration. Recently most of her work has been focused in mixed media installations. Her works have been featured in the media, including 500 Raku, New York Times and Ceramics Art and Perception. Tomoko grew up in Japan, US and UK, before settling in the greater New York area.
Erica Stoller is a New York-based sculptor who uses colorful industrial materials in an unconventional manner. Plastic plumbing pipes and their conventional connections are the basis of the work which may be hanging loosely or suspended under tension. Elements of the landscape such as cables and poles are not a direct source but are referenced in the sculpture. While some pieces have a permanent presence, others are temporary installations built on-site, photographed, and then dismantled. The images, then, are the permanent “reality”. The work has been displayed in numerous sites around the US and also in Canada. Stoller has been affiliated with A.I.R. Gallery since 2013.