valerie constantino
My work develops across a terrain of material elements and manipulations, visual and atmospheric renderings, and performative dispositions and texts. …The close and complex connection between matter and time offers a matrix for the irrationalities of life. And I am especially interested in the mutuality of interdisciplinary forms in relation to the ephemeral nature of being.
Concerns regarding the precariousness of life in relation to intensifying stresses to global ecosystems also influence my work. My recent installation, house with song and short video, My Liquid Self, take these issues into consideration through a range of material and media explorations.
…As always, materiality is at the core of my work. It remains for me the most apt poetic agent in relation to substantive form itself, to the primary processes of creation, and to my particular inclinations towards random variations and impermanence.
…The opportunity to trace the practical and elegiac roots of my artistic processes, to share these insights with others who have uncovered this wealth of influence, and to work together in the primary communities of southern Italy would to my mind realize the vision of art itself, illuminating the links between art and life.
valerie constantino: “Bloodlines,” work-in-progress, glass laboratory slides, rice paper, silk thread, mixed media, 3 x 36 x 1” (to date). This image shows the first twenty-seven in this work-in-progress of collaged laboratory slides. Each one describes the relationship of two blood-related family members, i.e., Valerie, daughter of Anthony. Based on known family histories and genealogical research to date, this group will eventually include eighty-eight slides. As my research is ongoing, it is likely that other groups will follow.
valerie constantino: “Bloodlines”, detail.
valerie constantino: “A Language of Simple Twists 2”, 2010-12, framed digitally enhanced video stills, angled shelf, framed collage pairings with layered and singed rice paper, horse and human hair, linen, silk, 18 x 15 x 8.” One set in series of four, juxtaposing performance stills with paired collaged works. I began this body of work in consideration of an imagined ancestral presence who studies the structures of knots, nets, and texts.
valerie constantino: The Handmaid’s Timepiece. 2010; antique table, lace, glass, digital photographs, gampi paper, silver leaf
lo studio dei nipoti 