November 8-29, 2001

MIXED MEDIA

Recent Works by Frances Dezzany

"Increasingly, the world is being structured with materials that are transmuted from natural matter. Plastic is one of those materials. Plastic is a derivative of the natural, liquid fossil layer of crude oil lying below the Earth's surface. Yet, despite its origins, plastic is a processed synthetic form of petroleum distillate. It is a material that I saw as a resource.

Due to plastic's synthetic nature, it takes on a strictly functional identity, recognized only for the material object that they form. Once such objects become broken, used and discarded, they are emptied of their functional content. The fragments enter a recycling process with the environment and become artifacts charged with new possibilities.

Synthesizing synthetics with low-tech and traditional methods, I invite the viewer to make a paradigm shift. The recycled materials give new form and shape and take on another identity. The contents are still what they are, but the context in which they are viewed has shifted. The idea about the material is transformed. The perceptions of the viewer hopefully have been altered.

In my art, it gives me a new exploration of working on fetish type pieces made of synthetic throw-away materials and found objects. Two dimensional woks of collage and Polaroid photo transfers reuse images and consist of layers of papers and materials that have had previous purposes. My approach is to create a whole composition that becomes more that the sum of its parts."

Frances Dezzany

Reception: Sunday, November 11 (5-7 PM).

Gallery Talk

TBA - Please contact the Bath House for information

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC