SEPTEMBER 2021
CENTER AND SOUTH GALLERIES
Cheddar Island and the Shiny Moon | Tamara Wilson
The exhibition Cheddar Island and the Shiny Moon features wall hung and site specific artworks out of a variety of industrial and domestic materials, largely reclaimed, by Fairbanks based artist Tamara Wilson. Works explore ideas of material association and redefinition within our physical space, both present and cosmic.
Artist Statement
My art practice is a mix between site-specific and studio work. I am inspired by domestic spaces, memories, investigations of how things work, daily routines, and industrial materials, but also the need to escape it all and dream. The push and pull of my pragmatic and childish mind fabricate my ideas within my work with the use of craft and industrial materials, such as building supplies, paper and felt.
The act of creating art allows me to combine my formal art education with skills gained through construction work; both fueling the need I have as a maker. Prior to the pandemic, the media attention that women had commanded guided me to take a closer look at how I am manipulating materials and ideas. I create feminine interventions with domestic objects and construction materials, disregarding both the object’s and material’s intended use. I use domestic craft materials traditionally considered feminine, such as thread and fabric and I strip them of their associations by using them just as art material. In parallel, I do the same for masculine aspects of the objects and construction materials I use such as hardwood flooring and electrical components. Within my work these worlds intertwine allowing them to become something new just as the art world does for myself.
I have always idealized the 1960’s and 70’s, so much momentum and change seems romantic. A recent installation, And Tuna, started to question that aesthetic. I have always been overly sentimental and nostalgic, longing for different times. But as an artist and an independent woman this is not a time period to be nostalgic for. This history belongs to my mom, not to me. Her strength and influence is why I am drawn to it. She taught me to be resourceful and that with enough commitment I could accomplish anything. Growing up in Alaska is fundamental in my becoming an artist because of the people like my mother who live here. With this realization I hope to begin to shift out of the past and start to create installations that embrace now and the change that is still needed in order to create an inclusive environment.
Cheddar Island and the Shiny Moon has been created throughout the pandemic growing on previous installations Macaroni and Cheese along with And Tuna. It has been formed through a rise and fall (and an endless repeat) of many emotions and events.
