Maybe I’m a Fusionist!
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You’d think it would be easy for artists to talk about their work but actually the opposite is often true. I make my sculptures because I feel compelled to create them. Once I have a mental picture of what I want to build, it’s easy for me to take off from there and create. The difficulty comes when I’m asked to explain why I make the work in a broader sense. For instance, the impressionists were looking at the effects of light. So, what am I thinking about that makes me create this and not that?
Throughout time art has been grouped into movements. In the last 150 years or so we’ve had impressionism, post impressionism and expressionism, realism and surrealism and funk, just to name a few. So, an interesting question for me to ponder is what is the art movement of our time, and how does my work fit into it? Maybe knowing that would help me answer the ‘why this and not that question’ better.
The other day I was discussing this with my friend, Susan, and we realized that currently we’re both working with the idea of taking existing objects and incorporating them with new parts we create to blend into a new whole. She works on paper so her repurposing is in the form of collage and painting while mine is using found objects and transforming their purpose into something new by adding sculpted pieces.
As we talked the term Fusion or Fusionism came to mind and it seemed to land well with both of us. I looked into it and found that there actually is a current Fusionism movement in art.
The idea behind Fusionism is that “it creates a new wholeness through the merging of distinct artistic elements into unique, thought-provoking expressions. Regardless of the subject matter, the hallmark of fusionism is that it blurs the lines among different cultures, old versus new media, and human versus machine-generated work.”
It felt good to know that some of what we are thinking about is also on the minds of other contemporary artists. There is something reassuring about being part of a group – a feeling of belonging.
Maybe I’m a Fusionist!
Thinking about my newest piece, “Lefty”, in terms of Fusionism, I’ve combined the nostalgia of the old, in this case a silver coffeepot which reminds us of the gentil ways of past generations, with the novelty of the new, an octopus who is now making the teapot it’s home. It is a fusion of generations, old and new, manufactured and handmade, nostalgia and novelty…
By combining these elements, I’m digging to express an emotion or a connection, to create pieces that make people happy. The methods I use to do this vary but I’m always searching for that joy.
So, while my interpretation of Fusionism may not be what other artists are doing within the movement, where cultures are crossing and AI is coming into play, it is nice to feel like I’ve tapped into the general thinking of this community of artists working today.
(I call this piece “Lefty” because four of his legs were created with my left hand only. Now that it’s complete only I know which legs are right and which are left. Maybe I’m more ambidextrous than I thought I was!)
Do you have a favorite art movement?
