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CHARTA
Michelle Stuart: Sculptural Objects
Journeys In & Out of the Studio
Text by Lucy Lippard, Michelle Stuart.
Whether an earth-rubbed book object infused with soil from Canyon de Chelly or a multimedia work depicting crossroads of trade in the Yucatan, Michelle Stuart's art conveys a sense of cultural history and distant places. This intimate, visually stunning volume focuses on the artist's small sculptures and sculptural installations. Opening with an introduction by critic Lucy Lippard, whose decades-long friendship with Stuart gives her unique insight into her practice, the book features journal entries interspersed among its 160 illustrations, conveying an eloquent sense of time and process. Since the early 1970s, Stuart has pioneered highly regarded approaches involving the unusual use of materials such as earth-rubbed paper and the use of seeds as medium and subject matter. She has won international acclaim for her inquiries into nature, blending an interest in archaeology, biology, cosmology and history. Sculptural Objects provides a glimpse not only of what inspires Stuart's artmaking but also of the journey a creative mind takes in solving the mysteries of being.
"The shrines at the tops of the Frijoles Canyon mountains have been destroyed or have simply been taken away by time and weather. Now there is nothing but a memory of the sacred places. Statements that they once existed can be read in early expedition papers."
Michelle Stuart, excerpted from the monograph Sculptural Objects, from which the featured image, Frijoles Notebook, 1975, is reproduced.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Woman's Art Journal
Robin Rice
The immediacy and introspective journal source of most of the writing and the almost palpable quality of the illustrations makes Michelle Stuart: Sculptural Objects, Journeys In & Out of the Studio feel intimate: a bit like a studio visit, perhaps, with the artist. Stuart’s distinctive art practice has evolved for over five decades, and Sculptural Objects is a visual and written record of things she has made, journeys, journals, and ideas.
FROM THE BOOK
"In several senses of the word, Michelle Stuart's touchstones are her raw materials, the crumbled rocks, shells, plants, or other artifacts, and their origins in time and space. They touch her; she touches them; and eventually we are too touched by the expanding resonance of their presences in her art. Stuart's involvement with the details of nature--the soil and seeds, leaves and wings and fur and feathers that make up our world--began when she toured rural California as a young girl with her father, a water-rights engineer. That was only the beginning of her travels, which have taken her to Latin America, the Galapagos, Easter Island, Hawaii. Australia and New Zealand, Alaska, Samoa, Scandinavia, North Africa, Nepal and Japan. With her work and in her journals, she can plunge us into arid laces, land us on islands in the seas, lead us through tropical jungles, or turn our gazes to the cosmos. It seems there is no wild or abandoned place that doesn't catch her emotional attention. While she has used many mediums to communicate her obsessions, the layered books and long scrolls marrying paper and earth are the base lines. At the same time, her proves can also be associated with feminist culture, with 'body ego,' affinities with the skin and body of the earth, female histories. Her repetitive, labor intensive techniques of pounding, rubbing, scouring and smoothing can be seen as homages to women's traditional work."
FORMAT: Pbk, 8.5 x 11.25 in. / 184 pgs / 117 color / 35 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $55 ISBN: 9788881588039 PUBLISHER: Charta AVAILABLE: 5/31/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not available
Michelle Stuart: Sculptural Objects Journeys In & Out of the Studio
Published by Charta. Text by Lucy Lippard, Michelle Stuart.
Whether an earth-rubbed book object infused with soil from Canyon de Chelly or a multimedia work depicting crossroads of trade in the Yucatan, Michelle Stuart's art conveys a sense of cultural history and distant places. This intimate, visually stunning volume focuses on the artist's small sculptures and sculptural installations. Opening with an introduction by critic Lucy Lippard, whose decades-long friendship with Stuart gives her unique insight into her practice, the book features journal entries interspersed among its 160 illustrations, conveying an eloquent sense of time and process. Since the early 1970s, Stuart has pioneered highly regarded approaches involving the unusual use of materials such as earth-rubbed paper and the use of seeds as medium and subject matter. She has won international acclaim for her inquiries into nature, blending an interest in archaeology, biology, cosmology and history. Sculptural Objects provides a glimpse not only of what inspires Stuart's artmaking but also of the journey a creative mind takes in solving the mysteries of being.
