Resident Artist:
Joanmarie Turbek
My interactive pieces function both as sculpture as well as props for social interaction. Through participation, the viewer's relationship to the work changes. You are not generally encouraged to approach fine art with the same candor that you would approach exercise equipment. A personal, unassuming relationship with my work is encouraged. I feel that it is the most direct way my background in functional ceramics has influemced me. Its tactile nature instilled in me a belief that there is a truth and honesty to objects we can approach and understand in a physical way.
My process begins with invention. Each piece is an attempt to fulfill a personal and specific human need. Efficiency is not necessarily valuable when dealing with personal issues; therefore metaphor and humor dictate form. The invention seems absurd: a surrogate baby-turkey for a group of career minded students, or a weight lifting bar that illustrates how balance can be equally important to weight. In our society, the products we own are a clear protrayal of who we are and what is important to us. I see my work as a form of protraiture, both of myself and of the communities into which it is inserted.
