AMY PODMORE

FINDING ELSA (2017)

2-minute excerpt of 16:29

Filmed and edited by Dave Simonds

A video/surround-sound installation that creates a rupture between the projected image, the architectural space, and the soundtrack. A virtual, life-size figure appears, via projection, scaled in relationship to the actual space. The figure performs a choreography of gestures in order to break each of the 52 handmade porcelain forms. We see the figure throw the porcelain objects, but they vanish as they exit beyond the free-standing projection wall. The shattering, however, is heard emanating from the exact locations where you would expect to hear the objects break, due to a series of strategically placed speakers, but without any visuals, or shards of the breakage. There is a disconcerting and confusing fissure between what you see and hear.

The title of this work was inspired by the Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven, a poet and artist at the center of a controversy about origins of the FOUNTAIN, (credited to Duchamp). The controversy began with the discovery of a letter from Duchamp to his sister in April of 1917 that states: “One of my female friends, under a masculine pseudonym, Richard Mutt, sent in a porcelain urinal as a sculpture. Since there was nothing indecent about it, there was no reason to reject it.”

Before discovering Elsa, I had begun with the Duchampian bottlerack structure and was making a piece about inescapability, layered cages and futile attempts at breaking down constantly changing boundaries. The fact that the Fountain, on which so much art history is based, could be mis-credited for so long, and most likely made by a woman who pushed all boundaries, overlayed neatly with my concepts for this work. It reinforced questions about the multiplicity of limitations and pointed to what is lost in translation about what is real and what is conjured, who receives credit and who is left out, what barriers exist, and the constantly changing landscape that constructs the “reality” on which so much our human understanding is based.

LANA (2014)
Filmed by Dave Simonds
Audio: "Code Breaker" by Zammuto

This continues my ongoing interest in animating sculpture. It features a sculptural costumes animated by the wearer. I use the inverted pockets to create a suggestive interior space that explores ideas about private/public, as well as vulnerability, in a hopefully poignant and humorous way. Participants: Trent Tabor, Alejandro Salas, Olivia Simonds, Ruth Bruno, Susan Quinn, Charlie Reetz, Ruby, Cole and Frank Jackson, and Karin Podmore

EDGE DRIFT (2008)
(1:50) documentation of a sculptural sound installation

Edge Drift is an interdisciplinary/collaborative project with musician, Todd Reynolds. It consists of a figurative sculpture, (3/4 life-size), holding a dust broom and standing on, one of many, iceberg like forms in a dimly lit room. An elongated shadow emanating from the foot of the still figure extends along the floor and bends up the wall. The sculptural states of stillness and silence are literally broken through periodic moments of animation and sound-a shadow on the wall begins to move and play a violin composition specifically composed for this installation. In this piece, I’m attempting to focus on the unforeseeable “gap” that exists between the active/potential of the human spirit and the harsh/reality of self-imposed, circumstantial limitations. This is echoed by the contrast between the large-active shadow of the violinist, and the passive- silent, presence of the figure and iceberg-like landmasses.

SOUL (2016)
Documentation of an event (1:09)

While at an artist residency in Oaxaca, Mexico, I was attracted to the object of the piñata, (which in Oaxaca is a paper mache covered ceramic vessel), and the idea of breakage, fallibility and fragility. This lead me to discover the histories of the Pinata across vast time periods, locations and religions. The ideas behind the breaking of the piñata go beyond our contemporary party activity, and are wide ranging, including such things as: god’s light, prizes, the womb, Satan, sins, the erotic and hope. The Italian word ‘pignatta’ means “fragile pot” and speaks to my attraction to the ideas about our human fragility and the precariousness in communication. I made my own piñata in which I housed a small speaker that played Nina Simone’s song “Don’t Let Me Be Understood”, as participants hit the piñata. The lyrics from the song, “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”, resonated with me for what I could see clearer from the distance of Mexico, while reflecting on the state of things that troubled me back home. Participants: Liliana Ambrosio, Santiago Beedxe, David Buuck, Manuel Diaz G., Estefany Diaz, Graciela Casacolonial, Michelle Golden, Laura Marotta, Ramona Ortiz, Julie Shafer and Jolanta Sprawka