2018 | NYC | Artist
Alisha Wessler
Objects and their Doubles (detail) 2017, Objects: Aqua resin, plastic umbrella handle, metal rod, wood, flattened pinecone, polymer clay, iron hook, rope, embroidered thread, dental mold, rusted wire, rock, water caltrop (devil pod), leather glove, leather glove tip, steel rod, cholla cactus skeleton, milkweed seedpod, human hair, pigment, dried plant, paper, methyl cellulose, fishing net, fabric, thread; Drawings: Watercolor and ink on BFK Rives paper Dimensions variable (23 x 83 x 7 inches in museum vitrine at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY)
Alisha Wessler's work explores hybrid objects, their narrative potential and taxonomic slippage. The drawings and objects she makes occupy the indeterminate realm between reality and dream, nature and artifice. Characterized by alchemy-like processes, Wessler manipulates a variety of found materials in intricate processes that rely on time and experimentation: drawings resembling the structure of lace, miniature sculptures including embroidered bird feet, meticulously carved thorns, a tower-like structure encrusted with crystallized salt, or masks sewn from cloth and anointed with mud. Wessler is interested in tapping into uncanny territory, where the familiar commingles with the unknown, strange and often foreboding.
Select Permanent Collections: Centre d’information Artexte, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; VCU Book Art Collection, Special Collections & Archives, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA