Description
Taking Down the Wall by Alice Sims-Gunzenhauser
carborundum collagraph and drypoint
20 x 26 inches
Year created: 2017
Description: A ghostly handprint emerges in the bottom center of the composition against a swirled background of navy blues, soft greys, and cream overlaid with threads of chaotic orange lines and cream rod shapes.
Connection to theme: The title was initially a reference to the proposed border wall but I prefer to think of it as referring also to metaphorical walls that separate people. Though it isn't a new work, it seems to be increasingly relevant as domestic and foreign events play out.
Artist Statement: Formally, my art practice has always been involved with the line, a preference that has its roots in childhood ballet classes and its persistence in a desire for visual movement, whether representational or nonrepresentational. Regardless of content, the line is the single most consistent feature of my work. The simplicity of the monoprinting process—laying thin paper on an inked plate and drawing or pressing on the back—lends itself to spontaneity, motion, and frequently to surprising results. Recently, I have been experimenting with Dremel drypoints--made with a power tool, which allows more fluid marks than the classic etching needle. Thus, I work with processes that engender movement not only spatially (how the marks look) but also temporally (What will happen next? How will I react to unintended marks/accidents? Can I make an integrated whole from images that are displaced in time?).
Some of my work addresses social issues but generally in an oblique way rather than through the illustration of figures. Most recently I’ve returned to working with text as image, another long-standing interest. The text in “That Day” is a poem that I wrote. Please note that it refers to a sexual assault in a somewhat graphic fashion.
Bio: I studied art at Grinnell College (BA) and Hunter College, (MA) and also studied art history on a Fulbright Grant in Munich. Drawing, in its broadest sense, has always been central to my work. My work has been shown regionally, both invitationally (e.g., a 3-person show at the Arts Council of Princeton) and in juried shows such as “Layers” at Site: Brooklyn and “(re)Focus,” a Philadelphia show commemorating the 50th anniversary of a major feminist exhibit. The words in my work are my own. In April 2024, a poem I wrote about Faith Ringgold was published online by New Verse News.
$1,000 *
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