The Original Purpose Has Slipped Our Memory

January 7 – February 11, 2017
Artist reception: Saturday, January 7, 4-7pm
Artists Talk: Friday, Feb 10, 11 am

alt_space exhibition

Artist Statement

Repetitive descents down a stairway, sofa cushions sinking from body weight, a footpath matted into the hallway carpet, the height of a light switch on the wall….Vanessa Diaz’s practice explores routine interactions of the residential experience to further develop strategies of customizing objects and architecture as a method of claiming space.

Scavenged furnishings and architectural elements are applied in specific combinations to develop unpredictable physical circumstances that distort the expected perceptions of daily use. Her work examines the process of arranging/re-arranging and how the placement of objects in a room or building effects the experience of navigating through a space. Diaz explores different ways of living traditions, shelters/architecture, neighborhoods and methods of transporting objects to inform the experience of viewing her sculptural installations.

Artist Bio

Vanessa Diaz is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and site specific installation. Her work reevaluates the discarded and abandoned contents, the furnishings and architectural elements, in a dwelling to define territory and offer an alternate perception of the domain experience.Vanessa Diaz is a sculptor and installation artist based in South Florida. In 2016, Ms. Diaz was awarded a Cintas Fellowship in Visual Arts through the Knight Foundation and a Windgate Fellowship for visiting artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, and a Clark Hulings Business Accelerator Grant. Diaz has developed site-specific work for Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, the decorative arts galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, FL and the Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa, FL. She was one of ten artists invited to exhibit in the premier Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art.  Her residencies include the Schwandorf Kunstlerhaus, Germany; the BAU Institute at the Camargo Foundation, France; the Atlantic Center for the Arts; VCCA; and among others an upcoming residency at the Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans.