Location: United States
Pattie Chalmers grew up and went to art school in Winnipeg, Canada. She received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Manitoba in 1994, and her MFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2001. Since graduating she has exhibited in group exhibitions on five continents, in six countries and in thirty-four states. She has had six solo exhibitions in the past five years, most recently the exhibitions The Mudmaid Museum at the Sheldon Art Center in St. Louis and Imperfect Ramblings at Merwin Gallery at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
Chalmers has taught at the University of Minnesota, Ohio University and at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where she is currently a full professor. (Chalmers might be a little compulsive, and she definitely likes to laugh at her own jokes).
This work originated when I began grouping fabricated objects into arrangements resembling something like a cabinet of curiosity or a great aunt’s china hutch. The specific objects in these compositions give clues to a tangle of narrative possibilities, ultimately translating into stories that, for the viewer, can become simultaneously familiar and strange. Through purposeful shifts in scale, a rejection of naturalistic rendering and a disregard for the traditional hierarchy of value, I am able to coax new truths out of haphazard bonds.
Things Fall Away— I find the connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory profound. This piece is a portrait of my relationship with my father, the objects represent, as the title states, the things that fall away as we move through life. There is a distortion to my rendering, the way that memories distort, and with a lack of colour these objects begin to wilt into the whiteness of the wall. Making this work allowed me to focus on my relationship with my father, but in sharing the piece I find connections with others through long-forgotten objects and shared reminiscences.
Things Fall Away— I find the connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory profound. This piece is a portrait of my relationship with my father, the objects represent, as the title states, the things that fall away as we move through life. There is a distortion to my rendering, the way that memories distort, and with a lack of colour these objects begin to wilt into the whiteness of the wall. Making this work allowed me to focus on my relationship with my father, but in sharing the piece I find connections with others through long-forgotten objects and shared reminiscences.
This work is a portrait of my first boyfriend, who died of leukemia in his 20s. As the title states, the piece represents what remains when we lose someone. The objects become a halo for his absence, reminders of his identity and the conduits for memory. In the making of this work, I reflected on my memories but found in presenting it that I made connections with others through forgotten objects, shared reminiscences and the common theme of loss.
My enthusiasm for exploring the nature of objectness and the aura of association were the catalysts for creating Every Day I Think of You—a collection of 365 articles that connect through recollection to a specific person. The objects that make up this piece are specific to my remembrances but can become stimulants for a viewer’s memories. The connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory and our human ability to condense such a variety of experiences into seemingly mundane mementos are what continue to grab my imagination.
“Every Day I Think of You (Detail)”
My enthusiasm for exploring the nature of objectness and the aura of association were the catalysts for creating Every Day I Think of You—a collection of 365 articles that connect through recollection to a specific person. The objects that make up this piece are specific to my remembrances but can become stimulants for a viewer’s memories. The connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory and our human ability to condense such a variety of experiences into seemingly mundane mementos are what continue to grab my imagination.
“Things Fall Away”
“Things Fall Away (detail)”
“What remains”
“Every Day I Think of You”
