User:Am,gut/Sarah Sze

Lead
Sarah Sze (/ˈziː/; born 1969) is an American artist and professor of visual arts at Columbia University. Sze's work explores the role of technology, information, and memory with objects in contemporary life through the utilization of everyday materials. Drawing from Modernist traditions, Sze confronts the relationship between low-value mass-produced objects in high-value institutions, creating the sense that everyday life through objects can be art. She has exhibited internationally and her works are in the collections of several major museums.

Process
Sze draws from Modernist traditions of the found objects, to build large-scale installations. She uses everyday items like string, Q-tips, photographs, and wire to create complex interconnecting compositions resembling constellations. This composition gives her work a chaotic yet precise style with the overlap of materials. All objects, regardless of size, are related to one another. This creates a larger meaning in her work as all of the pieces come together to convey a message. By Sze remolding and reshaping these everyday objects, she additionally changes the value of these materials. The incorporation of these "low value" objects rejects the traditional standard that sculptures have to be solid, limited in geometric shapes, and work with specific materials. This can be displayed with Sze's intentional inclusion of the unseen process materials (ladders, clips, wooden poles, etc.) being included in her final work.

Sze throughout her career has pushed the boundaries with sculpture. This can be seen with her using her works to convey movement. Through precise planning and strategic considerations, Sze strives to make the inanimate look animate. Using influences from her formal training in painting and architecture, Sze looks into what one can do with a sculpture that is limited to the two-dimensional.

Sze additionally takes into consideration the viewer and their interaction with her works and the objects she has chosen to display. When selecting materials, Sze focuses on the exploration of value acquisition–what value the object holds and how it is acquired. This consideration can be seen in her conceptualization process with how the viewer will first encounter the piece and how to pace and establish the narrative as they walk through her works. In an interview with curator Okwui Enwezor, Sze explained that during her conceptualization process, she will "choreograph the experience to create an ebb and flow of information [...] thinking about how people approach, slow down, stop, perceive [her art]."

significance
Sze's work encapsulates how an individual perceives everyday life and their environment. The recording of objects with memory is one of the ways Sze represents this idea. In her works like Timekeeper, Sze Creates a time capsule, allowing her to directly connect with the objects she utilized with the piece to the year. With Sze reconstructing former works, she has the record of what she originally used but now can add new materials, creating an entirely new time capsule. Time itself is a strong theme Sze plays into with the concept of the multiplicity of the unknown. This is created by her works veering off the canvas in multiple directions leads to this theme of the plurality of the unknown. Time and memory in Sze's work can also be seen with the distortion of images throughout time. Sze in her print installations has referenced prior works, relying on memory to reconstruct the former work in her current project. This not only reflects her prior work but also highlights how objects change over time in memory. Sze goes into additional detail about pictures and how this method can be used to retain a sculpture. Sze choice of materials is one of the key factors when taking in her works. The inclusion of these mass-produced objects additionally alludes to domestic life and the feeling of overabundance and growth. Having these daily objects collected, layered, or stacked on one another can be seen into her conveying an overwhelming or cramped space.

By working with sculpture, Sze is conscious of the space not only her work is located but also the space her works create. Sze's spherical work creates the opportunity for viewers to walk inside the work, creating an immersive experience. This choice is made whether or not the audience is aware when they enter the work they are part of the work or not. With Sze's background and upbringing in architecture, she is methodical in how visitors will encounter her work and how a gallery space will shape and form her work. This consideration deepens Sze's contemplation of whether there is a history to tell with the architecture or if it is there to guide the audience. The space Sze creates in her works reflects her choice of objects, creating a relationship with her work and the location where they intertwine. Within the space Sze creates especially with her suspending installation works, there is a feeling with these works of fragility to them. Yet through the deliberate process of aligning every object to one another, there is a strategic method to its fragile look.

With works located in the natural environment, Sze also takes into consideration the context where her work will reside. This can be seen in what she wants her works to not only convey but be of value. With her Storm King Art Center permanent commission, Fallen Sky creates the infusion and disintegration of the extra-terrestrial material to become one with the ground. Other outside installations like Still Life with Landscape take into consideration the natural habitat and include those needs with the structure, creating a seamless interconnection with the composition of the work.