Its Only a Wave Ma’am

Eve Ingalls

My work concerns human interaction with the natural world. My studio activity is a study of the most basic gestures used by humans to reach beyond themselves and create a world in which it is possible to exist. these basic gestures seem to concern survival, orientation, and communication.

When we view wild animals, even caged ones, those animals seem to us to carry a piece of the landscape of their origin. As our lives become increasingly urbanizes and withdrawn from nature, these pieces shrink and fade in our minds, stripping us of our awareness of natural habitat. I often feel, with the passage of time, that less and less of the natural world remains attached to me. While working on my sculpture, I imagine that the natural world is gone- erased- except for a bit of the landscape left at the edge of my body (perched on my shoulder, caught between my arms, or stuck in the triangle that holds my feet to the ground).

In some of my previous work, I have filled latex shapes with hydrocal and pigment which I squeeze against my body to record the gestures which allow me to place myself in the world. Because we repeat gestures in order to reinforce our presence, I repeat these movements until larger stacked units emerge. Many questions are asked, such as whether the beginning of architecture was the hat or the hug.

 

Negative Contact, Paradise Clear

Sheltering Earth

Empire On Course   (detail)

Evacuation