Opening Reception

Friday, September 22, 7-9 pm

Tracey St. Peter Artist Statement

Utilizing the papier-mâché process, I create forms, with strips of paper from topical headlines and stories, clipped from pages of the New York Times. The flimsy strips of newsprint become structure though repeated layering. Further in the process, these forms are covered in encaustic wax, smoothing and sealing the surface, preserving these objects, as if in amber.

The core materials in use here are discarded, and organic. These sculptures are an intervention that gives these materials a second life and purpose. Mirrors and rhinestones serve to both attract and reflect, light and color, beyond the pieces, in a dazzling display that changes with the external light. Mirrors place the viewer in the work, no longer a safe passive observer, you are implicated. We are all implicated.

Tilt and Sway is a reflection of the now, accepting the ugly, off-balance and tarnished reality of the present. It is both, a communal scream of alarm and an invitation to celebrate our shared humanity. Like a tree growing in counterbalanced movments upwards, even as the Earth itself can no longer be relied on to sustain us. The path forward is to remain nimble, seek balance and truth even as the ground shifts below us. With eyes wide open remembering, reflecting, confronting what is on a micro level as well as zooming out to an Overview Effect perspective. At this time, in this moment, simultaneously experiencing the horror and beauty, tilting and swaying towards the horizon line, as the sun rises and sets and a new days headlines arrive at our door.

Exhibition runs through October 21, 2023.