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Project #12: Bean Finneran
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am MainProject #12: Bean Finneran
THE ARTIST
Bean Finneran was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947; she lives and works in Calistoga, California. As a performance artist, she was part of the ZONE Theater Company in Boston in the late 1960s and then a member of the SOON 3 avant-garde theater company, currently serving as associate artistic director. She has been involved in ceramic sculpture for over 25 years. She regularly exhibits internationally. Her works can be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the collection of Microsoft Corporation, Redmond (Washington State), and the Korea Ceramic Foundation, Icheon, South Korea, among others. From September 28th to November 5th, 2023, Kunstverein Bellevue-Saal on Wilhelmstraße in Wiesbaden will present an exhibition of the American artist's work.
MATERIALS
Clay. Glaze. Color. The materials at Finneran are very elemental. Clay is one of the oldest materials on earth. As early as about 30,000 years ago, people discovered the practical use of clay as a material in everyday life. Vessels of all kinds have been made from it ever since. Finneran uses this material to create, in turn, very natural sculptures reminiscent of grasses, for example. However, she does not leave it at that. By using bright colors and glaze she transforms primal clay into something new and makes her her sculptures vibrant.
PRODUCTION
The production of Bean Finneran's sculptures is time-consuming: piece by piece, clay element by clay element. Her sculptures consist of thousands of hand-rolled and hand-painted clay elements. The artist herself calls her basic building element a "curve," because of the slight bend that occurs when the clay is rolled. Everything is made by hand: individually rolled by hand to the appropriate length and diameter with matching curve. Painted by hand. Carefully packed by hand. Carefully unpacked by hand and finally built by hand into a three-dimensional body..
INFLUENCE
Bean Finneran is inspired by nature. Working in the middle of a salt marsh, she translates her impressions of nature into art: a body of work made up of many individual pieces. Rather than transferring or imitating the motif directly into art, she instead interprets her understanding of nature as a repeating concept. Just as grass and leaves decay and grow anew over seasons and years, her installations of individual elements reflect the cycle of natural emergence with each assembly and disassembly. At the same time, there is also a reference to the individual in the repetition. Each sculpture is created individually piece by piece and always by using the same basic elements.
INSTALLATION
Finneran's installations are flexible: the size of a sculpture depends on the space and the amount of clay elements. Thus, sculptures made with the same basic elements can occupy the representative Bellevue Hall in Wiesbaden in its entire size and also fill this project space. In particular, the glow of the color, but also the complexity of the individual elements create a kind of aura that attracts attention and seems to illuminate any room from within itself.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed around the clock: the entire room and thus the project can be viewed at all times thanks to the large window front. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until November 19th, 2023.
