STATEMENT OF WORK

Through process, imagery and material my work explores themes of hope, loss, longing, belonging, return and the collapse of hierarchy between humans and non-humans. My practice is deeply intertwined and responsive to the seasons. During Spring, Summer and Fall I spend much of my time immersed in the woods of upstate New York. Research consists of sleeping, cooking, showering and otherwise living outside in a remote section of woods north of the Catskills.  I observe, document and internalize the monumental and minute moments that make up this place

During this time, I depend on fires for warmth, cooking and entertainment and after each one I collect the ash, soot and charcoal left behind. These remnants, imbued with the vibrations of the place, become my drawing materials.  During Winter, while working back in my Queens studio,  I metabolize my experiences of living outside through a deeply haptic engagement with the remains of the campfire, creating images informed by the memories of the place I am no longer in. I consider the drawings themselves places too, and utilizing repetition of form allows a deep understanding of their existence while referencing a longing to return.  The repetition is a protest against the notion of constant development and ‘progress’, a move towards the productivity of dwelling and remembering. When seen together, this repetition also prompts slowed perception on behalf of the viewer to recognize relationships between the works - this recognition is it's own form of return.  The drawings are constructed through hundreds of gestures of loss and repair and present the paradoxical hope of the wiped out, smudged, erased and rebuilt.

The frames for the works are made from downed trees and branches collected during the Summer. Using a chainsaw, axe and knife I process these trees into portions of wood that I transform into homes - nests - for the drawings. I then heavily char the frames with a blowtorch. Other frames, hand built and tenderly sanded, are stained with natural and home made materials, the patina of these frames occurs after the application and rubbing away of many layers. When used as drawing material and as protective housing for the drawings, the seemingly destroyed charred remains of fire make way for new ideas, images and objects.  This transformation creates space for hope and regeneration within the constant collapse that surrounds us.

Beatrice Modisett is a visual artist working primarily with found and handmade materials with a focus on the creation of meaning through process, material, and image. Through the lens of her deep connection with  non-human-centric landscapes, Modisett’s images and objects explore themes of memory, loss, return, hope and loss while attempting to collapse the myth of hierarchy between humans and non-humans. She lives and works in Queens but delights in the fact that she feels equally at home in New York City as she does building a campfire and pitching a tent deep in the woods. Modisett earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from Montserrat College of Art and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has had solo and group exhibitions at Analog Diary (Beacon, NY); Maier Museum of Art (Lynchburg, Virginia); Queens Museum (Queens NY); HallSpace (Dorchester, MA); and Assembly Room (New York, NY) among others. She has participated in residency programs including Wave Hill Winter Workspace (Bronx, NY); Palazzo Monti (Brescia, Italy); Hambidge Center (Rabun Gap, GA) among others. Modisett is the recipient of a number of awards and grants and was named by Artsy’s Alina Cohen as one of “11 Emerging Artists Redefining Abstract Painting”.