ARTIST STATEMENT
My work questions political issues focusing on ideas of protest, power, and perception. I use collage methods, using many layers of different types of printmaking, from digital to silkscreen and lithography, to create physically layered prints that address the multiple ways that changes within the government impact our country as a whole and the well-being of the person as an individual. I believe that a physically ripped and glued collage represents the sense of piecing together the truth, discarding the ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news.’ The layers and collage method also represent the fragmented and partisan society and how the feelings of fear and exclusion can be overwhelming. I am currently looking into the role of the people in creating change within the government and within society. The role that protests have played historically and currently, in speaking up, in demanding change. A never- ending sea of protests, from Black Lives Matter, to climate change awareness, to women’s rights, and immigrants’ rights become layers within my prints. Landscape is referenced in my work, with the horrors of history hidden within the overall beauty and physicality of a country and its ideals. As I question the ongoing dangerous and destructive political narrative, I look for positive elements and the possibility of protests, of change.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sipling received her MFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design and BFA in Printmaking from Purchase College, State University of New York. Her work has been shown at Gate FortyFour Gallery, Milan Italy; Foundry Art Center, St Charles MO; COS Gallery, Visalia CA; Brick Red Gallery, New Orleans LA; Janet Turner Print Museum, Chico CA; Reece Museum, Johnson City TN; East Hawaii Cultural Center, Hilo HI; and Augusta Savage Gallery, Amherst MA. Sipling received the 2022 Black Box Press Art as Activism Honorable Mention Grant and was selected for the 2020-2022 Arquetopia Foundation Honors Residency, in Puebla Mexico. Sipling’s work is held in public collections such as the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw GA; Shanghaf Collection, Dubai, UAE; Penang State Museum, Penang Malaysia; Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro AR; Haugesund Museum of Fine Art, Haugesund Norway; and Museu Casada Xilogravura, Campos do Jordao Brazil. She lives and works in New York and Kansas City.
© Sarah Sipling