an Act of Preservation

Author/Artist Name

Jo R. Bennett, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Fall 11-4-2016

Artist Statement

The inevitability of change present in nature is a familiar subject. It is a reliable constant throughout my life and has so far provided plenty of experiences both positive and negative. Change has taken me on a journey through relocation and travel, my education and career, and through my own identity. But just as in nature, moments of experience are fleeting and unstable. With a life in constant transience, I find myself persistently fascinated with the ephemeral but fixated with finding stability.

My work explores this fixation in the ‘act of preservation’ by treating found objects with reverence, much like Doris Salcedo in the way she treats the materials or subjects used in her work. The decisions I make are with the intention to safeguard, pausing the natural cycle of time, and create a sense of significance and permanence. The end result is an often desperate attempt to interrupt mortality and make lasting these fleeting moments.

The materials in my work, whether found or refined, are elegantly composed with simplicity and drama in mind, a similar approach influenced by artists such as Sarah Hood and David Chatt. Many items are pieced by contrasts, such as organic vs. geometric, stability vs. instability, warmth vs. coldness, hardness vs. softness. The resulting work appears in many forms of interest to me, each for different reasons. Reliquaries exist for the purpose of preservation, tucking things away and exposing only clues to its contents. Jewelry, on the other hand, exalts the ephemera and forces the wearer to actively participate in its preservation. And finally, I'm interested in repairing dilapidated objects. Not to restore their function but to preserve history and memory, existing as both memorial and memento mori.

Advisor/Mentor

Sarah Martin, Jeanne Beaver, Nicole Hand, T Mike Martin

Description

Wooden reliquaries, sterling silver jewellery and small sculpture, and found furniture sculpture, of varying sizes.

Materials include: basswood, cherry, sterling silver, brass, bronze, paper/fibers, plaster, found natural objects, and found furniture.

Photo Credit

Reserved in thumbnails by Ty Elrod

All others by Jo Bennett

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Bennett, Jo R., "an Act of Preservation" (2016). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 6.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/6