American Culture & Conversations
My work explores characteristics of a contemporary American culture at its worst, best and average. The projects come from research, media, podcasts and conversations about the American experience which develop into visual articulations of the frivolity, richness and commonalities of modern life. I mine an array of topics around our cultural practice, enigmas, myths, contradictions, and obsessions into multiple bodies of work in paintings, installations, or sculptures. I have found refuge in rejecting traditional norms and methods by exploring new materials and the seeds of new questions by letting the idea dictate the final form or materials. The studio becomes a laboratory and a performance of the questions I am asking and an exploration of playing with new materials and innovation and exploitation.
My current work focuses on our fixation with objects (possessions) and the spaces in which they/we inhabit. The American consumer is an obsessive collector, and hoarder of objects: consumable, durable and mundane. The frivolity and sheer volume of acquiring, fueled by social media, advertising and corporations has developed a culture where objects and spaces become symbols of status, history and self which are not rational. The body of work started when my brother’s village burned to the ground and a need to understand his loss. Objects and spaces are imbued with meaning and history. We ourselves are objects in space. Architectural features like corridors, doors and windows offer an opportunity to contemplate. Both the room and the objects participate in a struggle with the body and inner self by forming layers of histories, memories, and relationships.
I am examining the objects and spaces I am working in, passing through, remembering, or experiencing virtually. Each work reflects an interaction with all the STUFF and the room which has defined my past, present and existence. Each return to the studio creates another layer of interaction and time and simultaneously attempts to resolve the psychological and the emotional hold on me and a rejection of the kinship I possess with any object. The threads of thought document and unravel the relationships by abstracting and recontextualizing the complex dialogs with the stuff of life. But I am left with more questions: What remains? What is gone? What has changed or been transported? What is memory? What has been discovered? What is visible or unseen?
I am curious of the riddle of these curated spaces and the objects within them in which we dwell in. By expressing the tension between the room (diagram), the object (abstraction) and self (autobiography) I am discovering the identity, history and memories which reside in a realm beyond words. The spaces and the objects whisper and I am listening.
Renee Noelle Cheesman 7 18 2024
Renee (Noelle) Cheesman, Updated 8/15/2024