Sabine Senft

A-frayed
hand polished border rock, tire, 23K gold leaf, screw
9 x 20 x 9 in.

The dichotomy between beauty and suffering strikes a chord. I work through juxtapositions and contrasts. My work frequently deals with vulnerability, past and present and the idea of looking past perfection to reveal and see what lies beneath the surface, literally and metaphorically.

A research trip to the Mexican border yielded discarded objects from illegals crossing the river into the USA. I also collected rocks from that natural border and treated them with traditional stone sculpting techniques to reveal their millions of years of beauty and memory of the earth. I juxtapose them with the found objects to illustrate the social, economic and environmental impact we have as human beings. ‘
These rocks and found objects are witnesses and fingerprints of our time.

My enthusiasm for my materials has matured and evolved over the years but not diminished. Gold and stone are as old as mankind. They record and carry the past into the present (gold is essential in microchips and stones are the memory of the earth!). They give us cultural identity. I give them new meaning. This is how my work fuses the ancient with the contemporary in medium, technique and a fresh approach.