freeze, thaw, bloom, 2022, Mirror, resin, acrylic gel, glass, salt, porcelain, insect pins , 24 x 24 in.
Allison Paschke
Artist Statement
Interaction and the ephemeral are central to my work. My passion for materials has led to an investigation of light-reactive materials such as mirrors, resin, acrylic gel mediums, glass, and translucent porcelain. The interaction of these materials creates complex layers of translucency, reflection, and shadow. While my work’s rich material qualities are palpable, the transience of light is equally important. Each piece changes constantly depending on the time of day, the environment it reflects, and the position of the viewer. While most of my installation work has been overtly interactive (participants are invited to touch and move objects), my work involving mirrors is also inherently interactive.
Other aspects of my work also imply the ephemeral. Delicate materials such as tiny, translucent porcelain elements create a feeling of vulnerability. Amber resin and insect pins are both associated with the preservation of organisms. Porcelain is both easy to break and at the same time durable for millennia buried in the earth. Pyramids evoke the quest for immortality. Through my work I seek, paradoxically, to capture and immortalize what is transient.
Another underpinning of my work is geometry. Basic forms such as squares, circles, ellipses, grids, pyramids, and the relationships between them form compositional structures. Sequential systems inform component-based works or patterns within a piece. At the same time, each geometric structure is altered and enriched by materials and by the hand’s intervention in the forming process. I’m searching for the edge between the geometrically perfect and organically irregular, and the place where the present and the infinite coexist.
Past Group Exhibitions: “Write me letters” you write to me, 2024 Sunshowers, 2023 Structures of Feeling, 2022 Fractal Nature, 2021 Forever is composed of Nows, 2020 Make Make Make: Repetition and Accumulation, 2019 Active directions of the mind, 2019