Hyper-Utility
at the University of Vermont
ONE Arts Center is proud to partner with ArtShape Mammoth to curate an exhibition for the Living and Learning Gallery at the University of Vermont in Burlington.
Hyper-Utility, a four-person sculpture exhibition, features the work of Cori Champagne, Sande French-Stockwell, Jane Gordon, and Amy Joy Hosterman. The show considers our relationships to land and material, environmental futures, and how our species will adapt. Simultaneously focusing on optimistic perspectives of survival, sustainability, and prosperity while exploring the dismal reality of consumption and overuse, these artists investigate responses to an undetermined future.
Exhibition runs March 21st - April 15th, 2016
Opening Reception and Artist Talks: Thursday, March 24th, 5:30-7:30 pm
Cori Champagne
My work has always used functional items – things like ladders, houses, jars, and chairs. When I was in graduate school, I started making work that went further than just referencing functionality. Instead of just looking like it would work, I made sculptures and clothing that really did work. I made beds with wheels, and desks with wheels, and dresses with (wait for it) - wheels, and noticed a theme emerging. I’m compelled by the need for individual mobility. Whether it’s the need to change locations because of war, economics, religion, or climate, I’m endlessly interested in dealing with the specifics of how individuals change locations, contexts and identities quickly. Clothing works brilliantly to achieve these goals, and my recent work uses clothing as a format and a material. The clothing I make is hyper-utilitarian: sometimes changing forms, like from a jacket to an apron; changing use, from a camouflage dress into a sleeping tent; or changing by addition, like multiple wearers connecting their clothing into a new communal form. I test what I make, and this becomes another part of the work; an experiential event, for me and for others, and documenting the results to improve the pieces, and develop new ones.
Cori Champagne is a sculpture and installation artist working in Boston. She holds a dual-BFA in Sculpture and in Glass from Massachusetts College of Art + Design, and an MFA from Maine College of Art. Cori has exhibited work all over the US: independently, and in collaboration with the Bunny Sandwich Collective. From 2010-2015, Cori joined primary collaborator, Sandra Oberdorfer, in the Bunny Sandwich Artist Collective. The BSC received grants from The Puffin Foundation and The Barbara Deming Fund for their “American Nomads” project, and had multiple solo exhibitions on the East and West Coast. Their most recent show, “Floating Edge” was exhibited at Monte Vista Projects in Los Angeles. In addition to her studio practice, Cori has extensive teaching and curriculum development experience at several Boston colleges. Currently, she is adjunct faculty at Boston Architectural College where she teaches in the Foundation Studios program in the School of Architecture, and as a program manager for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cori is also involved in the grassroots organization, City Studio project, which aims to create and protect studio spaces for creative professionals in Boston.
Sande French-Stockwell
This work has all been built by using slabs to enable a loose, immediate fantasy image, by using bright exciting underglazes, I hope to evoke a sense of the magic and hope for the post apocalyptic human!
I have a long history of exploring 3D work in all it's materials and am finding that clay expresses my image the best in this incarnation.
Sande French-Stockwell lives in Vershire Vermont. After traveling and living/studying sculpture in Italy, S.Africa, and all over the States, Sande has loved living and working in Vermont since the early 80s . Sande lives with her husband Bob and 5 dogs . She currently teaches sculpture and works at The Mud Studio in Middlesex, Vt. Sande enjoys being involved in a portrait group in Tunbridge and a figure drawing and sculpting group in Maple Corners. Having retired 10 years ago, Sande has devoted her life to pursuing her creative impulses. She feels that it is a joy to be able to create every day all day!
Jane Gordon
Jane Gordon creates site-based installations of ceramic multiples, the practice is labor-intensive and often involves repetition: of movements, forms, and processes. Each piece is flexible to allow it to alter based on arrangement and surroundings; thus the work can exist in any number of locations as long as they incorporate certain characteristics. Much of her inspiration comes from consumption of post-apocalyptic fiction; whether novels, films, or television; and personal views on the state of our species and the planet we are a part of. The underlying narrative of survival in a time of social, cultural, and environmental uncertainty weaves through the work, however dominant intentions are more formal: using the objects to initiate a conversation with a particular site.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jane moved to Albuquerque in January 2010 to attend graduate school. She completed her BFA in ceramics at the University of Minnesota, and studied Art & Ecology for her MFA at the University of New Mexico. Coming from the “land of 10,000 lakes” to the high desert was a huge shift, and provided as many challenges as it did inspirations. The dichotomy of these two landscapes continues to inform her work, along with her thoughts and feelings about our culture, society, and the planet we are a part of.
Jane teaches ceramics at UNM, and works in the produce department at her local Co-op. She considers her strong work ethic one of the most important facets of her personality, but is learning to honor relaxing as a necessity for a fulfilling and productive life.
Amy Joy Hosterman
I am a ceramicist fascinated by natural cycles and technical processes. I observe myself, my species, and my world, and I respond through meticulously detailed miniature sculpture. I make work about our relationships with the environment as we attempt to control and organize the natural world. Process is an important part of my work, and often I am studying my experiences with the ceramic process itself.
My recent work involves collecting and hand-processing clay from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I’ve been testing and formulating different mixtures of this clay, laboriously digging, hauling, mixing, stirring, pouring, storing, and finally sculpting the clay. Saving every last precious scrap of my diligently hand-processed clay, my attention is on ideas of collection, containment, manipulation, metamorphosis, and the sustainable utilization of resources.
Amy Joy Hosterman is a ceramic artist originally from Minnesota, now living in Colorado. She is the Program Director for Art Shape Mammoth, and she is a Co-Director of the Visitor Center Artist Camp in Ewen, MI, where she has developed comprehensive clay programming for a near-wilderness artist residency and sustainable practices symposium, hand-processing and firing the local clay on-site. Amy Joy Hosterman studied at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, and received her BFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota. Continually researching and testing, she is a ceramics materials expert and experimental kiln-builder. She has received grants for projects in both Minnesota and Michigan, including Irrigate Arts, Awesome Without Borders, Pollination Project, and the Michigan Department of Economic Development.
