8.20.12 Featured Artist: Allison Wade

Allison Wade, When I woke up it was Thursday (installation view, MFA Thesis Show, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute
of Chicago), 2012, Wood, ceramic, steel, screenprinted fabric, paint, handwoven cloth, dimensions variable

My work relies heavily on balance and tension. I focus on the moments where materials meet. I piece together objects that look as if they might fall apart, but instead remain intact. The ability of certain sculptures to resist gravity speaks to hope as well as physics.

I install these works in conversation with each other, positioning them so that visual and physical connections punctuate one’s navigation of space. The compositions depend on a calibrated balance of materials and formal elements within each work and between neighboring sculptures. Margins of negative space and points of connection, both actual and implied, become as important as the more materially substantial elements. Simultaneously aware of the specific relationships of the parts and the coherence of the whole, the viewer senses a new logic, one that invites investigation and interpretation.

My process is cyclical: I collect materials and construct components, gather these in my studio, move everything around, and continue editing until I arrive at satisfying arrangements. Even though the final pieces may seem simple, they are often the result of months of tinkering and refining.

Clay has become an integral medium in my work over the past year. I had been looking for a way to express time in my sculpture, and ceramics provided this additional dimension, slowing down both my process and the interpretation of the work. Also, since my practice is so much about balance and tension, the ceramics add a different type of tension—if the piece falls, it will break.

While making, I am thinking primarily about material properties and formal decisions. In order to achieve balance, I must be physically and mentally attentive to multiple parts at the same time. The sculptures become metaphors for the contingent nature of relationships, whether human or syntactical.

Language structures play an important role in my process. I arrange objects grammatically, manipulating materials into highly edited sentences or paragraphs. Each element contributes to the overall syntax, and interpretation often hinges on a seemingly insignificant conjunction.

Allison Wade is a Chicago-based artist. She received an MFA from the Fiber and Material Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this May, earned a BA in English literature from Stanford University, and completed the post-baccalaureate program at Maryland Institute College of Art. Wade has been awarded residencies at Mustarinda (Finland), ACRE, and the Vermont Studio Center, for which she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. Upcoming group shows include “Wobbly Misconduct” at LVL3 Gallery (Chicago) in August, “All Good Things Become Wild and Free” at Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) in September, and a solo exhibition at evening projects + editions (Chicago) in December. Wade was born in Dallas, Texas.

Artist website: allisonwade.com