WATERSHED

Rena Detrixhe, ArtPrize Seven Artist

Exhibiting at the Grand Rapids Public Museum

I am a hunter and gatherer of materials. Thus, many works begin with objects or elements I collect. These objects: seeds, petals, shells, and berries, or common household refuse like tea-bags and dryer sheets, are embedded with history and possibility. I am drawn to materials which possess an inherent story, a familiar source. I use these materials to create intricate drawings, sculptures, and site-specific installations that combine multiplicity and repetitive process. By inviting a conversation between material and process I am often guided by the very nature of the material. I see relationships with my own process and those of traditional crafts such as crocheting, embroidery, and beadwork. These activities involve intense focus and repetitive and meditative qualities which parallel how I work with material. I enjoy how simple, yet meticulous hand processes reiterate a sense of time or duration. By translating these objects into something more fantastic, strange or immersive I hope to embrace a sense of curiosity and allow a new story or to emerge. I hope to bring attention and wonder to something which might otherwise be overlooked or disregarded.
 

From a young age I was taught to view and appreciate nature as if it were fine art. Spider webs, tree roots, veins of leaves, and clouds formations were works of art to be revered and contemplated. As a child, I spent most of my time outdoors exploring the world around me and this sensibility of finding awe and wonder in my surroundings has remained with me and continues to influence my work. I grew up in a rural farming community, where weather conditions and the state of the land often not only determined one’s disposition but also their livelihood. My father has a background in botany and worked for the US Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service for over thirty years. He was ever-eager to teach me to identify native plants and grasses, read the weather through the changing wind patterns, and how to responsibly care for the soil. My mother, a ceramicist and a self-proclaimed environmentalist, has a deep connection to the land and an impossibly green thumb. As a very young girl she related deeply to the traditions and mentalities of Native American culture, namely the care of the land and intense respect for nature and animal and she maintained these values and instilled them in her own children.
 

I trust I will retain a distinct connection to the wide open spaces of the Great Plains, the prairie, the wheat fields of western Kansas, the big skies and their frequent thunderstorms. More so, I have developed an interest in spaces more broadly. This interest certainly stems from my personal history and adoration of nature, but has also led me to explore other spaces through my art practice: the home (or the apartment), the gallery, and the workplace. Throughout these investigations I am continually questioning the role of the artist.  I am interested in creating a dialogue between artists and other areas of research such as ecology and environmental studies. In my work entitled Heirloom I created a ‘stage’ for a public round table discussion in which a variety of individuals including biologists, environmentalists, ecologists, artists, and writers were invited to discuss the relationship between art and environment. In a different context my most recent work, Full Time, was intended to create a dialogue between art and labor. I and my collaborator, Eli Gold, performed a full work-week within the gallery space working continuously to complete an edition of specific objects each day. This project expressed a personal confusion about the artists’ ability to survive and continue making in the financial reality of living in a society that places little economic value on the work of many artists.