Artist Victoria Fuller discusses her curated show “Domestic Disturbances” at UIMA
Chicago artist Victoria Fuller has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and fellowship awards from the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities, and the Illinois Arts Council. She also received an Illinois Arts Council CAAP Grant, and was a resident artist at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY and Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, IL. Her large-scale public sculpture “Shoe of Shoes” is in the collection of Caleres Shoes in St. Louis. Sound Transit in Seattle commissioned another large-scale sculpture, “Global Garden Shovel,” and she was commissioned by Comed to create a the sculpture, Peas and Quiet.” In 2016 she was featured in Sculpture Magazine’s May issue, as part of the show “Disruption” at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. Her most recent large-scale public sculpture, titled ”Canoe Fan,” is installed along the Huron River in Ann Arbor, MI.
“Domestic Disturbances”
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago
August 4 - October 1, 2017
Alberto Aguilar, Robert Burnier, Lily Dithrich, Victoria Fuller, Alyssa Miserendino and Alison Ruttan, curated by Victoria Fuller
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4, 2017, 6-9pm
Artist Talk & Performance: Sunday, September 24, 2017 at 2pm
“Domestic Disturbances” is an exhibition of work relating to the home, the human condition, and how our lives are reflected in what we call home. Issues represented in the work of Alberto Aguilar, Robert Burnier, Lily Dithrich, Victoria Fuller, Alyssa Miserendino and Alison Ruttan deal with what constitutes a home, and how homes reflect our selves, outwardly and psychologically.
In this exhibition, Robert Burnier’s suspended tent installation suggests the impermanence of home, whether in the urban environment, or in war-torn countries. So too does Alison Ruttan find urgent subject matter in the displacement of people, with ceramic sculptures of bombed buildings in Syria. In his photographs and installations, Alberto Aguilar explores formal and personal connections to objects from his own home, and from the homes of local Ukrainian Village residents. Lily Dithrich and Victoria Fuller also draw from everyday domestic objects; the former finds hidden meaning through the manipulation of furniture, and the latter manifests ordinary household items in extraordinary ways. Alyssa Miserendino re-photographs the photographs made by her father, who coped with a personality disorder by using a camera to connect with his family and home life.
Homes have such a deep connection to our identity and it is where our most intimate moments play out, for better and for worse. The loss of home by war, disaster, or economic hardship can be devastating. Objects we collect are both personal and impersonal – some have a personal history, and connect to our personal identity, and others are of throwaway value or simply utilitarian. The artists in “Domestic Disturbances” approach the subject of home through psychological and symbolic perspectives, as well as situational ones.