Alexandra Piper

Artist Statement

Investigation. Piper.

Within my artwork, I hope to create a parallel between nature and found objects. I seek to create artwork that feels like it's created naturally in both its aesthetics and process. As a result, I find myself collecting, filming videos and creating installations. Additionally, I'm interested in the perspective that my viewers have when exploring my artwork and subsequently transforming through differences.

I begin this process by collecting materials or using what I have around me to make a piece. I often find myself drawn to collecting natural materials like moss, dirt and even water. It's important to me that the medium I am collecting does not become overly manipulated. Habitually, I collect all of my dirt from Millville, NJ, in the woods where I grew up, and all of my videos are filmed on the lake that is behind my old house. Repeatedly going to the same place allows me to create in a space where I can play with familiarity like nature often is to one.

Within my earlier work, there was a shift in interest from soil to water. This, came from the realization that it's almost impossible to take the work (material? dirt, soil, etc.) that I was collecting and create away from its surrounding area without it being incongruous. I had ideas of holding water, transporting it, bringing it with me. I came to understand how water always activated space and became the focus of many of my inspirations. Its sound: familiar to me, the smell, comforting, and when it moved it was always recognized as water, singular. When using materials that are not from nature, I preserve (present?) them as a way to reflect the literal nature. These objects also, in turn, are a reflection of my own space. 

Overall, I seek to create a singular notion, like collecting or performing futile acts, that don't necessarily speak to a larger narrative.

IMAGE GALLERY

Click through to enlarge and view individual artworks from Alexandra's thesis project.