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2009 Open Exhibition Winner
Renee van der Stelt • Projections: Line on Land
Exhibition Dates: October 28 - November 29, 2009 • Reception: November 12, 6-8pm • Artist's Talk: 7pm
Artist's Statements
Recently, my work explores how a drawing can affect and shape space. I seek formal and conceptual ways to assimilate drawing into the sculptured form. As a result, I have become increasingly intrigued by how we think about space, and how conceptions of space are informed not only by our knowledge of such things as maps and satellite images, but also by the movements that occur in specific spaces.
The sculptures/drawings are produced through cutting or repeatedly puncturing the surface of the paper with a pin or shaped punch. The resulting images and forms describe space in both diagrammatic and topographic ways. Depending upon the direction of the light and the placement of the forms in space, these drawn projections appear as two and three dimensional dots, low reliefs, or points of light. Some of the drawings/sculptures suggest plans and elevations of the globe and our galaxy. They also explore strategies for charting three dimensional space as well as unseen movements around the globe such as wind, water currents, or bird flight patterns. Through the work I hope to reveal some of the biases and limitations of how we think about space as well as of how visual maps are often used as a tool to perpetuate those ideas.
Much of the work seen in this exhibition was produced in 2008 and 2009 while living in Roswell, New Mexico. The work focused in part on the mineral resources available in the geographic region: specifically the location of water, oil, gas, and electric lines. The desire to understand complex systems of local and global human interaction with natural resources is what lies behind some of the abstracted drawings/sculptures. When seen next to each other, the pieces attempted to give the viewer a broader understanding of New Mexico. The focus of a local space may change from New Mexico to Virginia, but the desire to reveal something unusual about a region through the work is consistent. Finally, the exhibition includes ink and graphite drawings of desert grasses. These drawings exhibit a more intimate, response to the land by ‘mapping’ the movement of varied grasses in the wind. Large graphite drawings of flight patterns in the sky made by Sandhill Cranes, Mexican Brown Bats, and Starlings from the parks, caves and fields of New Mexico are also an attempt to find how visual lines extend into space through a kind of transient and temporary action found in the landscape.
About the Artist
enee van der Stelt was born in 1965 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up in Ontario and Iowa. She received a Masters in art history in 1990 and a Masters of Fine Arts in drawing from the University of Iowa in 1993. Van der Stelt now lives in Baltimore, Maryland and exhibits nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the City of Baltimore, and the state of Maryland. She was an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony in 2008, and recently spent a year as artist-in-resident at Roswell Artist in Residence, Inc. Her work is included in the Drawing Center’s Artist Registry, NY and the Washington Project for the Arts registry.
Renee would like to thank:
Target Gallery Commitee and the Torpedo Factory Artists' Association
Mary Cook, Target Gallery Director
Allison Nance, Torpedo Factory Designer
Paul So, Lia Newman, and Philippa Highes, Jury Panel
Kathryn M. Davis, essay writer, critic and friend
Don and Sally Anderson at Roswell Artist in Residence, Inc.
Matthew and Helen McConville, beloved husband and daughter
John and Sandra, beloved parents
Jean and Eugene McConville
Thanks for the space and time to make and show new work: a hope fulfilled, a privilege and gift.
The Target Gallery, national
exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, is
located on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, VA.
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