Fanny Allié
Urban Characters, 2014, Fabric and mixed media, 63 x 91 x 106 inches
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work shows traces of a fleeting moment, an ephemeral existence and most of all, a narrative that links us to each other in our daily life.
In my recent collage work, I tear apart and re-assemble pieces of newsprint images to create characters and habitat structures inspired by my observation of people living on the streets in New York City and online images of migrants fleeing their own place to reach a new one. In the creation of new forms using existing images, my focus is on the weight and the belongings we carry, including our own body, from one place to another, throughout our life journey.
In conversation with my solitary studio practice, which is driven by the handmade process, I develop site-specific public art projects. The human figure, with a particular interest in its outline or trace, is at the core of my public work and play with ideas of memory and the mark we leave on places and others. “A Bench For the Night” (2015) which is both a sculpture and a functional bench takes the shape of a sleeping person. The sculpture provides a temporary rest area and hopefully evokes a shift in the viewers’ perception of the homeless. I find a balance in the difference of scale, materials and interaction with the public of these two distinct however related practices.
View the artist's exhibition here