Dubhe Carreño Gallery

Elise Siegel

Artist's Statement

My work continues to focus on the emotional landscape of childhood - a shifting internal world that remains somewhat opaque and mystifying. For me the image of the child embodies an inner conflict, evoking all the things we revile and try to overcome in ourselves, and simultaneously, all that we cherish and long to return to. I am also fascinated by the ability children have to travel back and forth seamlessly from their existence in our world – which they may barely understand - to a universe of their own creation that is impenetrable to us as adults.    

I think of children as existing comfortably in the world of the uncanny, where inanimate things really do come to life. They have access to a realm of experience in their daily lives that we, as adults, rarely do. It is very much this experience that I try to embrace in my artwork.

 I recently began making a series of busts and individual figures that once again depict children. Although each one is different, they are not portraits of specific individuals. Rather, they are meant to be suggestive and open-ended, to evoke a type of experience, to reflect what the viewer brings to the encounter.

The busts and figures are inspired by dummies, puppets, mannequins, and even the bobble-head dolls on the tables of sidewalk vendors in my neighborhood. These objects share certain devices: seams, misalignments and openings that make visible their internal springs and armatures. In engaging with these figures, one’s mind tends to skip over the obvious fragmentations and inconsistencies while simultaneously vouching for them. By unconsciously overlooking these things, we enter into a kind of agreement with the object, empowering it with the potential to have a life of its own.

 Another impetus for this new work has been a growing desire to respond more directly to the tactile materiality of the clay. In doing this, a practice has emerged that is more an interaction, a dance, and less an attempt at control. By allowing the sheer physicality of the clay sometimes to be in the driver’s seat, I begin to work intimately with it as opposed to doing things to it. Hopefully, the inanimate object, the embodiment or constructed being that slowly emerges before me, will occasionally look back at me, meet my gaze, tell me about itself, and about myself.