Spring 2025 MFA installation – Sue Borchardt
My current artistic practice is focused on abstract color explorations using casts of a rubbery material made of gelatin that has been plasticized using glycerin. These forms are then arranged into larger compositions and underlit, currently by LEDs and previously, using experimental animations displayed on iphones, ipads, old flat-screen TVs, and digital frames. The more recent use of LEDs offers a brighter, more saturated light source.
The underlying aesthetic guiding this work is somewhat nostalgic, ironically harkening back to a time when the promise of petroleum-based plastics was seen through a purely optimistic lens. The play of colored light and translucence in my work delivers, albeit belatedly, on my unmet expectations of a childhood toy – the light-bright – a back-lit panel on which transparent plastic plugs were placed to create colorful patterns.
The theme The Party’s Over emerged following the death of my step-father and my mother’s advancing dementia. For me, this meant, among other things, several months of work dismantling and disposing of the possessions they amassed together. The work that emerged during this time combines bioplastics cast using household items from the house where they lived for 40 years, repurposed as molds. Among these items used as molds include containers left behind by home health aides for measuring urine output (thankfully unused), plastic easter eggs, swizzle sticks, cocktail stirrers, and mixing bowls. The compositions incorporate additional salvaged materials, such as serving trays and lampshades, and are displayed on antique occasional tables left unsold following their estate sale. Incorporating both the healthcare supplies they became increasingly dependent on, and the dusty party supplies leftover from their heyday provides an avenue for me to make sense of the labor of dealing with the massive residue of two human lives.
