Becky Šik
April-May 2010
About the Artist
I am an artist who lives and works in Glasgow. My work centres on ideas of human endeavour, exploration and perception. I am interested in the way that time and place affect our perceptions and memory. I make sculptural installations looking at the minute detail of momentous events and the singular objects that make up the memories and feelings of unnamed eras. I am interested in the way fictional constructions are subsumed into personal and collective memory and collective memory creates imaginary objects. Often combining iconic and unknown but historically significant, images, objects and stories, I hope to freeze time momentarily and create an imaginary memory or recollection that appears all too familiar.
A landscape of fragile monochrome rocket towers teetering on the edge of balance; a monument to NASA, to Disney, to nature, is illuminated with the invisibly vivid colour of animated reveries. Geometric wooden sculptures lend their purpose to weightier times, carefully crafted maquettes of fictitious recollection. A garden feature, a sidewalk, the time we nearly succeeded, evaporate into a welcome smoke screen.
Recent projects have included artist in residence to develop a community garden, public art projects, installation art for pre-fives and gallery exhibitions.
Project Description
During my time at Sculpture Space I was interested in the cultural identity of objects and ideas of authorship. Who is the artist? And what is the art? Using chance occurrences and developing narratives as starting points for the work, I was looking at events and objects specific to a particular time or area and examining their significance to people with different experiences of them. How would these objects and events be perceived in a new context? My project involved working with professionals and craft people in the area including traditional sign painter Franck Zammiello, a dog trainer Larry Leogrande and his dogs Carlita and Anya and fibre artist Victoria Zazeck. I am currently developing an ongoing project looking at the local Adirondack chair examining authorship, craftsmanship and mass production, which will involve local furniture makers and artists.
