VIVIANE ROMBALDI SEPPEY
BELONGING
VIVIANE ROMBALDI SEPPEY
BELONGING
VIVIANE ROMBALDI SEPPEY
BELONGING Octo ber 7 - December 1 1 , 2 0 1 1
68 E lm Street , Su m m i t , NJ 0 7 9 0 1
9 0 8 .2 7 3 . 9121
w w w.a r t c e nt e r nj.or g
TRACING IDENTITY
VIVIANE ROMBALDI SEPPEY’S BELONGING SERIES Viviane Rombaldi Seppey has always made art in response to her specific environments. Having lived in countries on four continents, those environments have varied widely. What has remained constant throughout her career is an ongoing interest in exploring the traces of daily existence. The word “trace” carries multiple meanings; several are especially relevant to Rombaldi Seppey’s work. A “trace” can be a surviving mark or vestige of a person or thing no longer there; a tiny amount or barely discer nible evidence of something; or a track left by the passage of a person, animal or object. “To trace” is to find the origin or development of a person or thing; to investigate and discover where someone or something has gone; or to make a drawn copy by outlining the shape of the original on a superimposed transparent paper. These ideas about traces and tracing relate to Rombaldi Seppey’s work in formal and conceptual ways, since she often deals with the physical evidence of our existence. The artist utilizes elements from her surroundings—traces of daily life such as plastic bags, phone books, small found objects, flyers and maps—to examine how ordinary places and things help define ideas about belonging and identity. Belonging is a series of collages fashioned from white and yellow phonebook pages the artist collected from the various places she has lived. Her intricate and detailed compositions are visual “quotations” that reference the material culture of each country, such as patchwork quilts (representing America), mosaics (representing Italy), lace patter ns (representing Switzerland), paisleys (representing India), and several others. W ith this series the artist explores ideas about identity and mobility; she calls the collages “witnesses of my migrating life and the interactive relationship existing among individuals, places and memory.” Rombaldi Seppey sees the phonebook pages as “carriers of individual and collective traces.” There is a micro/macro quality in the relationship of the individual
fragments to the cumulative design scheme. The specific names and addresses on each tiny scrap of paper “disappear” into the overall composition, similar to the way individuals blur and become anonymous when absorbed into a large group. The names and numbers on the collage elements become traces of people. This melding of the general with the particular is an important aspect of belonging (and an equally important aspect of the artwork). Like people all over the world, Rombaldi Seppey has often relied on the telephone directory to help her navigate life in a new country. While the locales and languages of the phonebooks vary, the consistent physical material of the books and their common functionality are universal. The familiar directory always provides the crucial connections between people and businesses—and shortcuts to assimilation. In addressing the idea of belonging, Rombaldi Seppey poses the question “What makes us part of a place after a given time?” Perhaps her process of making these collages can be seen metaphorically as a “how-to manual” of lear ning to belong: find something familiar and reliable in unfamiliar surroundings; dissect information into smaller, usable parts; incorporate motifs and symbols from the culture at large; piece together disparate elements into something beautiful; and secure all of the layers with adhesive, making them into a stable and cohesive whole. Rombaldi Seppey’s use of ephemeral material—phonebook pages—to render iconic, (and presumably lasting) cultural images can be seen as slightly subversive. Ironically, the phonebook will most likely end up as a relic of popular culture as business and personal telephone listings are increasingly available and accessed online. The formerly ubiquitous printed directory is rapidly becoming just a memory. If so, Viviane Rombaldi Seppey’s Belonging series will preserve traces of that memory.
Mary Birmingham Curato r
Bondi
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Aust r a lia n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Jurong
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Singa pore phone books 38 x 38 inches
Americas
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Ma nha t t a n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Ve rd i
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from I t a lia n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Fontenex
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Sw iss phone books 38 x 38 inches
Neuen
2010 A c r y l i c a n d wh i t e p a g e s from G e r ma n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Sisarma
2010 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from I ndia n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Follaterres
2009 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Sw iss phone books 38 x 38 inches
Va l l e y
2011 Wh i t e a n d y e l l o w p a g e s from Ame r ic a n phone books 38 x 38 inches
Viviane
R o m b a l d i S e p p e y was bor n and raised in Switzerland. She began her art practice while living in Australia and completed her MFA in Singapore. The artist has also lived in Germany and Italy and has held artist residencies in Australia and India. She currently lives and works in New York City. For more information about the artist and her work visit www.vivianerombaldi.com
P h otogr a p h y b y J e a n Vo n g A ll ar tw ork c o u r t e s y o f t h e arti s t C atalogu e d e si g n b y K r i st in M ai zen as ki IS B N : 97 8 - 0 - 9 2 5 9 1 5 - 3 7 - 5
V i vi an e Ro m bal di Seppey rec e ive d a gra nt from the Ame ric a n Australian Association for this publication; the artist gratefully ackn o wl edg es th i s s u ppo rt.
Major s u p p o r t f o r t h e V i s u al A rts Cen ter o f New Jers ey i s provid e d in p a rt b y the Ne w Je rse y Sta te C ou n cil o n t h e A r t s/ D e p a r t m en t o f State, a P artn er Ag en cy o f the Na tiona l End owme nt for the Arts, the G e r a l d i n e R . D o d g e F o u n dation, the WJS Foundation, and Ar t Center members and donors. To lear n more ab o u t A r t C e n t e r p ro g ram s , vi s i t o u r webs i te at www.art c e nte r nj.org or c a ll 908.273.9121.