ARTIST STATEMENT
Working with materials that have transformative properties, such as clay, metal and textiles, I create sculptural works that are visual abstractions of myself as a woman; that explore issues of identity, memory, and the impermanence of self. Many times taking the shape of a half-sphere, these forms represent my ability to hold, support, and contain those things that I value most while remaining open, exposed and vulnerable to change.
I am fascinated by the innate duality that exists within metal. By nature, it has a rigid composition, but when manipulated by heat, it’s state of being transforms. Once molten, it loses its structural integrity as a solid and takes on the characteristics of a liquid, becoming malleable and fluid. Clay is similarly metamorphic by the way it can be dried, rehydrated, and fired to create something entirely new. Clay’s ability to record movement and gesture upon its surface is particularly engaging to me.
As we age, we are left with vestiges of thoughts- memories of a life that no longer exists. We are in a perpetual state of transition from one state of consciousness to the next. By grafting, binding, and welding these ancient materials together, I use the remnants to create sculptural assemblages that serve as a symbolic bridge between my selfhood of today to the the liminal space of tomorrow.
Each iteration is equally referential and abstract, and serve as containers for space, composition and the inherent congruency and contradictions between my past and the present.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Bethany Cordero is a Chicago based artist and is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied sculpture, fiber and material studies, and design. She creates large, asymmetrical assemblages that explore the formalistic tensions produced through precise manipulation and interweaving of metal and fabric. Equally referential and abstract, her most recent body of work, VESSELS, was primarily an exploration in how these new objects serve as containers for space, composition and the inherent congruency and contradictions of craft and art.
Her work is an exploration in materiality via welding, wrapping, casting, sewing, stitching, binding and weaving; while exploring the relationship between gender and mediums, women and the domestic, memory, identity and the ascribed inherent value of materials.
© Bethany Cordero