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Audrey Hasen Russell takes a cue from the landscape visible from the Sunroom’s windows with Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), a large-scale installation. Comprised of three sculptural components, these works combine to collectively register the rolling hillside and woodlands that make up the room’s distinctive views. In one corner, a leaning plywood structure upholstered in mustard-colored fleece that stands in for gently sloping wedge of topography is embedded with green glass and white twigs that resemble indeterminate organic growth. An arch made with sticks has the look of a young sapling, while a clutch of glasswork stationed nearby captures the microcosmic intimacy of a flower garden.
Russell’s work is also informed by childhood memories of a family farm in the Appalachian foothills of east Tennessee. Consequently, she chooses familiar materials that reference a distant nostalgic notion of the bygone, such as fleece and Depression-era glassware. At the same time, she resists a literal depiction of the imagery of her personal history. A heavy beam and an antique window pane possess a barn-like aesthetic, but they also suggest a tree trunk and a jutting precipice. By deftly navigating this boundary between representation and abstraction, Russell delves into the slippery nature of memory itself, and speaks to the persistent impulse to idealize days gone by. The resulting work is suffused with emotional resonance, provoking narratives of both comfort and loss.
Audrey Hasen Russell’s work can be seen this fall in Horizon Line: Objects in the Landscape, at the Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. She has exhibited this year in Bushwick Biennial, Nurture Art, Brooklyn NY; and Your Own Fairy Tale, AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. She has had solo exhibitions at the Mason House Gallery in Greeneville, TN; and the College Union Art Gallery, SUNY Geneseo, NY. In addition, she has participated as an Artist-In-Residence at the Sculpture Space Residency, Utica, NY; and at the Robert M. MacNamara Residency, Westport, ME. She received a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; and an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Organized by Assistant Curator Leigh Ross, the Sunroom Project Space provides an opportunity for New York-area emerging artists to develop a special project or create a new body of work to exhibit in a solo show. The five artists exhibiting in the 2009 season are: Cece Cole, Steven Millar, Janelle Iglesias, Audrey Hasen Russell and Mauro Zamora.
Public Programs
August 15 & 16, 1–4PM, Family Art Project: Sculpted Hills and Valleys. Fashion a playful landscape with Audrey Hasen Russell.
September 13, 1pm, Meet the Artist. |
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist |
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist |
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist |
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Slant Branch Souvenir (Thinkin’ on You), 2009
Plywood, beams, 2’ x 4’s, fabric, blown glass, Depression-era glass, foam, paint, cardboard, acrylic rhinestones, sticks
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist |
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| The Sunroom Project Space series is supported in part by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation. Additional support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by the Greenwall Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts–a state agency. Sustaining support for Wave Hill is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. |
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Target Free Days
Target sponsors free Tuesday and Saturday morning admission to Wave Hill, providing public access to the arts in our community.
  
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Printable Version
