Installation | christine-conley

The Spirit of Gravity

an installation using drawing, plaster and styrofoam sculpture, clay, news clippings, found objects, and lighting, made for Case Works at the University of Memphis

This was one of two bodies of work I've ever made that was inspired by politics. As with "Le Deluge," it reflected my reaction to the W years. I never worked that way before or since. I'm now back to feeling that, for me, art is better as a respite from incomprehensible greed and inequality than as an engagement with it. One of the biggest challenges in making this was the plaster covered styrofoam sculptures, because I have always been a 2-D artist. But I do like a challenge. The title is from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche. "The Spirit of Gravity" reflects a couple of things, including the weight I felt in those years, trying to justifiy making art when there was so much injustice all around me.

Spirit of Gravity

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Anatomy of Remains

This was a small installation I did based on my fascination with the leftover paint on the palette. I put the chips in a vitrine to display them along with the drawings that I did of them. It was done for a Memphis Brooks Museum Bienniel exhibit.

An Artist's Curiosities

This was my first installation. It was based on my fascination with paint chips. I did it for ArtLab at the University of Memphis Art Museum. I built vitrines to display the paint chips, made my first painting of them, drew small and large graphite drawings of them, and cast them in plaster. It definitely became an obsession. The drawings of the chips looked to me like anatomical studies. I think that was what first suggested science to me. Then I started reading about the museums of the 18th century that showed eclectic collections of art and science, and decided to pin the chips in vitrines, to look like specimens. There is a further artist's statement about the paint chips in the Painting section of this site.