Invited artist:Aurora Robson

For my record for 24 Hours of Wonder, I created a small plastic debris “painting” using a new technique that I have recently been developing for working with plastic debris in a way that allows me to “paint” on panels with plastic debris. I’ve always found painting very therapeutic, but what I’ve learned in my practice in working with plastic debris has made using virgin art supplies mined from the earth far less inviting to me. As a result, I haven’t painted much in 20 years. My practice began with painting so in a way, I am returning to my creative source but doing so using non-virgin materials. Upon close inspection, you will find formal references to motherhood and on one piece of the plastic waste I have included some embossed text that starts with the letters MA and the number 8. The embossed text inspired the title “MA 8” which struck me as an apt title because the youth of today say “ate” to indicate when someone does a great job at something.

 

Aurora Robson (b. 1972) Toronto, Canada grew up in Hawaii, then lived in New York City for just over two decades. She completed a double major in art history and visual art at Columbia University then began her full-time practice as an artist. In 2004 she began an inquiry into plastic debris as a sculpture medium. While exhibiting and engaging around the topic of creative stewardship internationally, Robson has developed an arsenal of innovative methods for sculpting with plastic debris, ranging from fastening to sewing and threading to injection and ultrasonic welding and most recently 3d printing. A recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture, a TED/Lincoln Re-Imagine Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts Art Work Grant, Robson is also the founding artist of Project Vortex, an international collective of artists, designers and architects also innovating with plastic debris for art and design applications. Robson currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley with her husband and 2 daughters.