Things Becoming Things
Shara Chwaliszewski
9/6/2022 – 12/16/2022
Science and Enginnering Building (VSCI), 1st and 2nd Floor Galleries
Left: Molded, Wire, metal, and acrylic on canvas
Middle: Purple Glaze (detail), Acrylic on canvas
Right: Creature and Unmolding, Paper and plaster
Things Becoming Things, on display throughout the Science and Engineering Building (VSCI) is an exploration of texture, color, and form. Raw canvas – painted, glazed, crumpled, and suspended. Cardboard or Styrofoam packaging covered with paper and glaze in layers upon layers upon layers until it transcends its purpose and becomes a new thing. Reclaimed or simple materials and repetitive, almost meditative, processes characterize my approach. As I struggle against or am guided by the inclinations of the medium, working with intention but no preconceived direction, a story begins to tell itself. Manipulation of outward form makes inner doubts fall away, and all is reduced to a conversation between my hands and the material.
Some pieces were removed from the gallery and relocated to other areas in the building to allow the remaining works room to breathe, and to further investigate the relationship between the object and the space it occupies.
Toxicityscape, Stryofoam and paper
Born on Canada’s eastern coast, Shara Chwaliszewski has made her home in the Pacific Northwest since 2006. Working in several mediums, she creates two- and three-dimensional works that are non-objective but often biomorphic. Shara is a Washington State University Vancouver alum (BA English, 2020; BA Fine Arts, 2021) and works as a tutor at the WSU Vancouver Writing Center when she is not making art in her backyard studio in Camas, WA.
Left: Imperfect Measures, Clock, paper, bamboo, and plaster
Right bottom: Spring, Sprang, Sprung Metal trap, paper, clothespins
Right top: Cephalopodcast, Bamboo roots, paper, and screen