Artists Sculptors Guild
 
Vera Manzi-Schacht email: Since Hunter Graduate School, where she received the Shuster Grant for outstanding thesis, Manzi-Schacht has exhibited as a sculptor in museums, galleries and public spaces. Her work has developed from the use of soft material (paper, monofilament, gels) in her natural light sculpture-environment installations, The Seraph Series, incorporating her terracotta figurative sculptures. Since this is site specific work, her artist in residences at both PS1 Center for Contemporary Art – MoMA, the U.S. Custom House New York City, the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts and The International School of Art in Todi, Italy. were helpful in the development of these concepts. In continuing her education since graduating from Hunter, Manzi-Schacht has studied at the National Academy of Art, the New York Academy of Art, The Sculpture Center, the New University/Parsons School of Design and in Pietrasanta, Italy. She has taught sculpture and art history at The Sculpture Center and New York Institute of Technology. She has also taught and guided students in France (following the French section of the Romanesque pilgrimage road, Santiago de Compostela, and the prehistoric caves of Font-de-Gaume and Pech-Merle) as well as in Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria, Italy. She has also worked as a stylist/textile designer in the fashion industry. She continues the process and development of her sculpture in her studio: IS1, located in Long Island City. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A MEMORY PALACE is a memory system - a means for storing and remembering information and forging images, a modus operandi of mindfulness. It was first used by the Greeks in the 5th century B.C. and practiced for two thousand years. This system was continued by Giulio Camillo, a Venetian Renaissance esoteric philosopher. In 1530 he built a Memory Palace Theatre for the King of France, Francois Premier. Using media such as the figure, terracotta, natural light installation, and the computer, I propose to build, sculpt and interpret A Memory Palace Theatre based on the work of Giulio Camillo, using his concepts of metaphor, symbolism and construction. The Memory Palace Chambers are holders of memory, archetypes, symbols, personal myth and meaning. Some of the chambers have developed from the site specific installation work - the Seraph Series: sculpture-environments that contain natural light. Due to the use of natural light, the work begins to be when the sun rises, ceases to be at dusk and is reintegrated at dawn. Light is not only involved with its formal aesthetic and historic concerns but serves most importantly as metaphor. The approach, arrival, transition and exit of the viewer-participant is of great importance. The figure is so essential to the work that I have placed life-sized terracotta figurative works within the installations. These remain, even in the absence of the viewer-participant , similar in concept to the ancient Egyptian use of the Ka, an image that holds the soul of the person.
Memory Palace
Liberata (detail)
The Foot of San Miguel
Delphic Muse (detail)
Liberata (detail)