Emilie Selden

Statement

I have a kind of looming anxiety about new technology. Now that so many of our interactions with each other are relegated to the internet, where they become literally substanceless, I wonder about the connective tissue that holds together our real, physical communities.

My current work is an attempt to delineate that everyday landscape. I have been constructing sculptural replicas of ordinary objects: postcards, photographs, ticket stubs, money, etc. They are mostly impermanent objects, symbols of discourse that gain their importance through changing hands. I make every component to-scale from observation, which forces me to consider my subject in relation to my own body. I want the process of making these sculptures to draw attention to the corporeality of my subjects, as well as to the limits of my own hand.

Ideally this effort at naturalism, combined with the small scale of the work, plays on one’s sense memory to create a shared space in the gallery. Folding chairs and dollar bills are things we are all accustomed to handling without examining: seeing them rendered in paper offers an opportunity to rethink the objects, as well as the habits of hand we associate with them. As more of life becomes virtual, pixilated, and instantly available, I feel drawn to those things that are mortal, vulnerable, and scarce. I see myself in the tradition of still life painting; I hold out a belief that understanding the weight and measure of intimate life—things small and close—is vital to understanding the world at large.

www.emilieselden.com