Attachments
“Attachments” is an online solo exhibition that takes an introspective look at self while exploring how my art has evolved with my personal growth. This is achieved by peering through the lens of the attachments I have to the world. By examining my relationships with the members of my immediate family and dissecting my perspective on the events of our past, I attempt to define my identity both as an independent person and as an artist.
Making my art comes from a place deep within myself and is inherently tangled up with the fabric of my life and identity. Naturally, in hard times, my art has been a lifeline; creating has been a way to cope with the things I have carried. In the same way, my family not only makes me who I am; they are also the other characters in my story. Just like how creating can be a method of coping, the comfort and familiar patterns of my relationships sustain a part of me even in the darkest days. As time has gone on and I have grown beyond my past, my art has become a way to share my story and connect with others who have faced similar things.
In addition, “Attachments” is the story of finding my identity in the aftermath of trauma and learning how to be okay again.
The various mediums used are meant to show the unexpected interruptions and new narratives change introduces into our lives. Although each work is united through the undulating use of line, vivid colors, and attention to detail, the change in media indicates that change itself is the only constant in life. In addition, the floral theme seen throughout my work is meant to bring to mind the cyclical nature of life, death, growth, and decay. Just as a decomposing animal nourishes the plants and soil around it, so too do the low points in our lives allow a build-up to the high points. The repetition of organic lines and forms through my work serves to reference this overall natural order that enforces change. Finally, this exhibition was designed to be an immersive installation to literally invite the viewers in to my perspective and life and strip away perceived barriers or masks. Since “Attachments” is autobiographical, everything I’ve put into the exhibition is a piece of me or my story in some way. That fact makes this show something both intimate and vulnerable; the installation design was meant to be an invitation to the audience to step beyond the masks of social etiquette and perceived ideals and join me in the true, vulnerable space.
I was originally set to have my solo exhibition in the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, my exhibition was canceled five days before I was set to install it.
My original plan was to have the animation I made projecting onto the back wall of the gallery space. The animation itself is literally and figuratively the center of the exhibition; it visually references each piece in the physical space of the gallery, to provide some subtle context to the vast variety of my pieces. A key part of this was a mural, which was intended to wrap the walls of the gallery space in hand-drawn illustrations and transform it into an immersive "garden" in order to reflect ideas of growth and change. Immediately on the walls to the right and left where the animation was going to be projected, I was going to hang photos showcasing my mom’s hands and my twin sister; some of these images shot on my Holga 120N and the rest edited to mimic the same style. The grain and soft focus of the photos was meant to show the intimacy and connection I have to both of my subjects. I wanted to capture the complexities of my feelings of both of these important people in my life, and I found that the fuzzy, soft feel produced by my Holga worked well in doing that. In addition, I had three pieces of ceramic sculpture that were meant to be placed near the entrance to the gallery space. These pieces capture the human figure and literally dissect it down to its base, and their placement was twofold--narratively, it was meant to represent the events of the past that started this journey I have been on and I hoped to evoke emotion from viewers as they passed by. The final piece on display is “Growing Up”, an abstract steel sculpture. This would have been placed in the center of the gallery in order to help guide the flow of traffic around the space and towards my other work. My intention was to have my animation be the first, and biggest, thing that viewers saw when entering the gallery. More importantly, I aimed to have an open free feeling space.
In the absence of an in-person show, I adapted and created my own website to showcase my work. The site I made included the entirety of my work, an artist statement, contact information, a digital guestbook, and a full 3D modeled mockup of the gallery installation of my show. View that exhibition site at:
https://schlotthauerisabel.wixsite.com/attachments
This page also contains my full collection of work for "Attachments"; please view below!
To wrap up, "Attachments" is a project that will always be evolving for me. This current iteration of the exhibition is complete, but as long as I continue to make art, this body of work will continue to develop right alongside me. My attachments have formed me and continue to drive me to be the person I am today. As long as I have these connections, "Attachments" will continue to develop and grow.