Mixed Media Sculpture, Found Objects

sculptures made from materials that had been left from unresolved art projects in graduate school, gardening, weaving, sewing, alcohol inks, and felting

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In Collections: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19

Copyright Status: In Copyright

Date: 2019/2022

Artists: King, Erin

Subjects: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- , in art

Material Type: Mixed media works
Sculpture (visual works)

Language: No linguistic content

Extent: 5 mixed media sculptures

Genre Note: Mixed media sculptures made of found objects

Exhibit Label: The themes of my creativity during the pandemic were domestic spaces and objects, revisiting unresolved works, and protest. During COVID-19, I spent much of my time when I was not at work producing art at home for my artist-in-residence group exhibition in October 2020. I also spent much of my stipends on soil and seeds to grow my own vegetable garden - something that I hadn't been able to do in several years. I used found objects; materials that had been left from unresolved art projects in graduate school. I acquired many different musical instruments "dead bodies." I also used gardening, weaving, sewing, alcohol inks, and felting. The link between domestic objects (planters, lamps), musical instruments "dead bodies," and the space between functioning and not functioning were heavily influenced by the early stages of the pandemic as well as the increase in time spent at home during isolation. The mask flag and the chess set were directly informed by the protests that were happening throughout the summer and fall of 2020. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m52f7ns58

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1 of 5: How Do You Know?

A dark brown wooden bowl filled with colored balls and crocheted COVID cells. The balls are also wooden and painted in metallic blue, yellow, orange, green, pink, and purple and carved with different crossed and waved patterns. One of the balls in the middle is a light brown with the image of a COVID mask burned into it. Surrounding the wooden balls are the crocheted COVID cells, made with metallic multicolored and orange yarn.

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Extent: 1 mixed media sculpture

Exhibit Label: This is a collaboration piece that one of my fellow artists-in-residence and I made for our exhibition. I crocheted the corona viruses and my cohort member turned the wooden bowl and balls. My cohort member also wrote a poem that accompanied it in the exhibition. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5wm16v46

2 of 5: My Body My Choice

An American flag on a black pole. The flag is mostly missing, with only the top blue portion with white stars and two of the beginning stripes of red and white remaining on the pole. The two stripes and blue portion of the flag have been sewn together to create a COVID mask.

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Extent: 1 mixed media sculpture

Exhibit Label: I spent a lot of the early days of the pandemic learning how to sew on sewing machines that I borrowed from two workplaces to make fabric face masks. I had two retired U.S. Flags that were waiting to be turned into artwork and I was inspired to turn the field of blue into a face mask. I titled the flag mask "My Body, My Choice" ironically based on the usage of that argument to argue against wearing masks during the pandemic. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5df6p43x

3 of 5: Freedom of Assembly

A chess set made out of felt and fabric. The chess board has red and white squares, weaved together. On the top part of the set the chess pieces are made up of different shades of white, tan, and brown felt. On the bottom part of the set the pieces are made up of red pieces of felt.

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Extent: 1 mixed media sculpture

Exhibit Label: I took the stripes from the flags to weave into a chess board. I was working as a gallery attendant at the World Chess Hall of Fame during the height of the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests and decided to needle-felt a chess set for the Pieces vs. Pawns chess variant to represent the strength of protest. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m54b3162t

4 of 5: The Surrealist's Trombone

Part of a silver-color brass trombone constructed into a lamp, covered with felt and switched on. The trombone is upside down, the bell of the instrument is used as a lampshade. Following the bell, the base and first tuning slide of the instrument are wrapped in multicolored felt that has darker blues and purples at the bottom and on the slide, and brighter oranges and yellows on the top. The body of the lamp is also wrapped in multicolored felt, and its base is white and round.

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Extent: 1 mixed media sculpture

Exhibit Label: A chess set made out of felt and fabric. The chess board has red and white squares, weaved together. On the top part of the set the chess pieces are made up of different shades of white, tan, and brown felt. On the bottom part of the set the pieces are made up of red pieces of felt. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5td9r91j

5 of 5: Pentacles

A yarn weaving on a painted green and brown background. The weaving in the center is in a rectangle shape with a black border that surrounds a smaller pink, blue, and purple square border. Within the square border is a teal background and five black pentacles in yellow circles, arranged with two on each side and one beneath them in the middle. The pentacles are on a brown shape, with yarn leaf-like shapes surrounding them.

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Extent: 1 mixed media sculpture

Exhibit Label: This piece was created for the ‘Interpretations' exhibition at the Columbia Art League, created as an interpretation of a poem written during the time of the pandemic when news of the vaccine was first coming out. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5pz54n4s