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Tinsquo's curatorial project, Adjacent To Life, presents Gesture Generations by Sigrid Wendel.
Marisa Malone writes:
Sigrid Wendel’s practice embraces nonlinear paths of discovery, responding intuitively to what emerges rather than imposing a narrative. This series of ceramic sculptures are the confluence of influences, the subconscious, and trust. Guided by the tug of intuition and a desire to build off her previous series, Gestures (a grouping of abstract forms themed around the body's contortion, unfolding, and change), these pieces began to materialize and ultimately take the shape of something deeply familiar to Wendel: that of her mother’s doodles.
Thin slabs of clay curl and drape gingerly against a solid shape, others cut angles more severe and energetically; while not intentionally setting out to echo her mother’s aesthetic form, the fact that this occurred was not altogether surprising. “The word that comes to mind is relief,” says Wendel, “like ‘oh that’s what I’ve been working on this whole time!’ I’m reinterpreting my mom’s unconscious style.” Her mother’s doodles–sketches in the margins, designs in the borders of cards and notes–were impressed on Wendel and have transformed through her.
The transformation continues into the next generation as well, as Wendel was pregnant with her daughter while making this series. These sculptures are a translation, a dialogue between generations (mother and daughter) and mediums (drawing and clay), making visible the unseen imprint we leave on one another.
For Wendel, creating this work has been a testament to “trusting that the process means something, even if it's not precisely clear from the [start], and to trust that whatever I'm making is a product of all the things that are filtering through me.” We can let this serve as an intimation for us as well.
Inspired by what arose while making this series, Wendel and her mother are in the process of collaborating, drawing from her mother’s extensive archive and creating new work together.
- Marisa Malone
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Sigrid “Siggi” Wendel is an artist, teacher, and writer based in Alphabet City. She grew up on the California Delta and in the woodlands of Western Massachusetts before studying politics and visual art at Yale University. She’s passionate about mutual aid activism and co-teaches a Yoga for Climate Justice series at the Sixth Street Community Center on Thursday evenings, open to all. She made the majority of the work in this show (inspired by her mother) while pregnant with her own daughter, Cuinna: her most ambitious creative endeavor to date.
Marisa Malone grew up in the Sierra foothills of Nevada. She studied writing and literature at The Evergreen State College and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her writing has been published in BlazeVox Journal and Selfish Magazine, along with two self-published poetry chapbooks.
Gestures Generations is on view through July 26, 2024 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist's reception: Saturday, July 20, 7:30 pm.
Posted by Mark Roth at June 29, 2024 08:33 AM