MULTI-MEDIA I N S T A L L A T I O N S
INSTALLATION STATEMENT
In our everyday lives we randomly come across various scents and sounds such as the smell of chalk dust reminding us of an inspirational teacher from grade school or hear a classic song that brings us back to a childhood friend we haven’t thought of in ages. They may have disappeared from our present lives, but are still embedded in our subconscious. My conceptual installation is a mechanism for insight. Enclosed in plexiglass and submerged in seawater my paintings fade into pulp over time. The scents and sounds attached to the installation serve as powerful memory triggers resurrecting the subject’s existence & reaffirming their importance.
My experience working in a Psychiatric hospital as the head mental health counselor exposed me to so many untold stories that needed to be told. These people were going to fade from the public consciousness only to be buried in that institution and so I felt compelled to preserve their stories through my art.
The process is, I paint a portrait of my subject on found wood. I then build a plexiglass container in which to house the wooden portrait. The plexiglass container is filled with seawater that will disintegrate the portrait over a lengthy period of time turning it into pulp wood. Attached to the plexiglass case is a small glass box filled with a scent representative of the subject which could be anything from juicy fruit gum, to musty books, tobacco, or old leather from a motorcycle jacket. Also attached to the plexiglass case is an iPod filled with music and recorded conversation that becomes the soundtrack to the subject’s life.
As in real life our visual memories of even the most important people from our past fade, my portraits also disappear. We are left with only the scents and sounds which serve as powerful memory triggers to remind us of that person’s existence and influence.
MVVO AD ART SHOW AT SOTHEBY'S NYC
The innovative Maria Van Vlodrop, has created dynamic group art show. The first took place in the legendary Sotheby's with an incredible opening and the second and third took place on the 2000 plus digital LinkNYC displays all over Manhattan as well as on the digital displays in the Santiago Calatrava designed Oculus at the World Trade Center. The first of it's kind.
Title: John Trudell In The Redwoods
Materials: RedWood. Oil Paint.
Installations X 3
Eat Me: Kenny Shopsin. Oil on Wood, Saltwater, Tootsie Rolls, iPod, Plexiglass
Porn Star. Oil on Wood, Saltwater, Condoms, iPod, Plexiglass
