Corporeal Construct

Group Exhibit

Apr. 17 - May. 14 2010

About Corporeal Construct

The artists in Corporeal Construct join organic form with construction, exploring the dynamics between human intervention and nature. Primarily consisting of sculpture and installation work, which have physical presence and inhabit spaces that confront the viewer with references to the body, whether it be that of the viewer's or another’s, the works in this exhibition blur the boundaries between what is natural and what is man/woman-made, illustrating the complexity of our relationship with the natural world. Though we humans may distinguish ourselves with reason, a bigger brain, and opposable thumbs, we remain animals and connected to life within and around us.

Vicki Barkley

This piece explores the relationships between bodies in space. It could be seen as a family or colony of forms, which may be part of a bigger system, either biological or geological. The interplay of material and texture of the different forms is important, as well as the variety of materials, color, and size. I wanted to explore how disparate bodies interact, and how this parallels human experience.

Mariah Caterina Csepanyi

Inspired by processes of cooking and entertaining and communication through food and reciprocity.

Laura Goble

I’m interested in the feelings spaces can provoke. Space can contain ideas, and emotions. Materials and processes become a metaphor personal experience, juxtaposing hard and soft, round and square, sharp and dull, making hard materials appear soft. I enjoy structure and form and creating objects that test physical boundaries. My work references the human body, nature, and natural systems.

Dao Nguyen


My work examines systems in nature, which function as metaphor for human intentionality. I am fascinated by how the self-organization of life and phenomena in nature just “happen” without any seeming intellect orchestrating them. Somehow human consciousness manifests from a concert of organic machinery having evolved over centuries of time. Formal and textural considerations, choice of materials, and process reflect these directions of inquiry. The physical remnants of human existence often serve as a starting point for transformation and have included both natural and manmade materials such as human hair, cat fur, wool, used tissues, LEDs, and obsolete domestic objects. I find inspiration in what is often considered refuse, but which has acquired meaning by its connection to human life.

Kelly West

Debris has been thrown to the wayside, left to depreciate in city streets, parking lots and empty fields; weather erodes, machines trample, dust covers, and uncovers. No longer useful, consumer items accumulate in corners and highways in and through urban areas and in water passages. Everything molts, either naturally, or culturally. I blend and compile these textures into building something that for me is either an exorcism or a celebration.

Tamara Mason

I'm interested in the taking and defining of space, of materials transforming into a new form, of organic forms from functional human made materials, of giving a quality of life to lifeless materials--the work seems to be growing and moving, living and breathing.