Mari Andrews
GRAVITATIONAL PULL
Gravitational Pull Interview by Donna Brookman with Mari Andrews
Mari Andrews’ studio is filled to the rafters with mysterious and evocative forms fashioned from wire, twigs, lead, salt, coal, and other materials that she collects from both nature and culture. The sculptures suggest a lost language of signs, both minimal and powerfully symbolic. DB: You’ve said that some of these sculptures refer to forms of the compass. MA: Yes, this body of work comes from my interest in navigation: compasses, sundials, and modes of tracking time and direction, from different cultures. I love instruments, tools, and scientific methods. Researching historical compasses, I often found myself pursuing new tangents. I love discovering things that way. I started with sundials and compasses but it has led me to many other possibilities. DB: You seem to be embracing a certain realm of content that’s outside of abstraction. MA: Yes, that’s fairly new because I love to work freely, abstractly, and associatively, and be inspired by the raw materials I collect. I think of my work as pared down, reductive, and the word “element” has a special significance for me — the smallest particle or definition of a thing is its element. This idea of elements: studio elements, earth elements, has come into the work. My materials are expanding to include lead, coal, salt, sugar, and willow. DB: Is the reading of metaphor in the work something you welcome or feel resistant to?
Y Studio view Y Compass 4 (title pg) 2014; steel 15 x 15 x 1/2 in.
MA: It’s fine for the work to be felt as metaphor. This body of work raises the issue of how we as humans navigate the world. And some pieces feel more like talismans that could embody the meaning you bring to them. DB: What do you think are the roots of your fascination with science? MA: Visiting my Dad’s laboratory at the university. Besides exploring the nearby creeks and woods, I was trying to keep up with five older brothers
(laughs). Most everyone else in my family is a scientist — I went a different way. But I find myself attracted to geography, geology, and biology. I loved Biology class in high school. I was one of the few girls who could dissect without getting nauseous. I love that other world, the world under the surface, whether it’s inside a body or underground or a cross-section of plants. I like that which is not readily visible. I often work with a microscope. The piece made of iron rings is called Magnify. Those rings were collected over years from junk shops. I had no idea that I had so many or that they would sequence like that. Elements do sometimes gestate here for a long time before they make their way into the work. DB: These are very intimately scaled pieces. How is your use of scale is evolving? MA: I sometimes work larger but I primarily make larger pieces from smaller parts. That’s how I’ve resolved making larger work until I can have work fabricated. DB: They have a sense of relating to the scale of the human body. MA: Yes, I’ve been working in this scale for some time and I think it does relate to the body. I like the intimacy of it; you have to get up close to see what’s going on. DB: The eye travels wonderfully when they are clustered like these on your studio wall. Such diverse forms, and they talk to each other as well. MA: I think of them as having familial relations — they’re definitely a family! DB: On one level these sculptures appear to be relatively simple forms, but they also feel like abstract signs or symbols. MA: For years I studied Native American petroglyphs. I’ve travelled throughout the Southwest to see and photograph them. I love the very simple, early mark-making by humans. It is a distilled language. DB: Do you have a specific form in mind when you begin working? MA: I follow my intuition in making my work and welcome accidents and left turns. I love the concept in Zen Buddhism of the koan — which is the riddle, the mystery, the unresolvable story. I’m happiest when the work takes me in a direction I don’t know, or it manifests itself differently than I expect. To me, that is the physical manifestation of a koan.
Z Magnify 2014; found metal, steel 29 x 23 x 1 in. Z NSEW 2014; steel, coal 11 x 11 x 1/2 in.
U Quadrant 2014; steel, wire 43-1/2 x 44-1/2 x 1 in. Y Clearpoint 2014; wood, mica 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1/4 in. Y Northsouth 2012; steel 9-3/4 x 7-1/4 x 1/4 in.
U Catcher 2014; steel, wire 9-3/4 x 10 x 1/4 in. Z Compass 2 2014; steel, stone 15 x 14 x 1 in.
Y Eight-ish 2 2014; steel, wire 27 x 12 x 1/4 in.
Z Eight-ish 3 2014; steel, lead 27 x 11-1/2 x 1/4 in.
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1. Thorny
2014; steel, thorns 17 x 18-1/4 x 4 in. 4
2. Catcher
2014; steel, wire 9-3/4 x 10 x 1/4 in. 3. Shielder
2014; lead 6-3/4 x 7-1/4 x 1/2 in. 4. Compass
2009; wire 18 x 14 x 1 in. 5. Dewdrop Round
2014; steel, lead 14-1/2 x 13 x 1/4 in. 6. Fan 1
2014; wire 11 x 9 x 5 in. 7. Compass 10
2014; wire, mica 9 x 8-1/4 x 1/4 in. 8. Waveround
2014; steel, lead 8-3/4 x 8-3/4 x 1/4 in. 9. Sunny
2013; found metal, wire 20 x 14 x 2 in.
U Suncompass 2014; bark, wire 14 x 17 x 1 in. Y Snare 2014; steel, wire, silicone 15-1/2 x 21 x 1 in. Z Stoneswirl 2014; stone, found metal 10-1/4 x 5-1/2 x 1 in.
1. Dandy
2012; steel; 14-1/2 x 8 x 1/4 in. 2. Catcher 2
2014; galvanized metal, wire; 11 x 11-1/4 x 3 in. 3. Northerly
2014; steel, wire; 15-1/2 x 14 x 4 in. 4. Trim
2014; wire; 10 x 8-1/2 x 1 in.
5. Expandable
2014; steel, tape measure; 19-1/4 x 6 x 1/2 in. 6. Sink
2014; steel; 9 x 16-1/4 x 1/2 in. 7. Crenulate
2014; steel; 11 x 8-1/2 x 1/4 in.
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U Sugarsaltlead 2013; sugar, salt, lead 12 x 73 x 2 in. Y Leadindigo 2013; lead, indigo 6-1/2 x 4-3/4 x 1-1/4 in.
About the Artist Mari Andrews is a sculptor and installation artist. Her work is a continuation of her drawing practice and employs such varied materials as wire, lead, seeds, stones, mica, soil, salt, pods, and thorns. Many of these are found materials collected during her travels. Choosing among this diverse collection, she creates new associations and juxtapositions that awaken the imagination. Many of Andrews’ sculptures are small-scale and intimate worlds, shown individually or installed in large groups. Drawing upon her fascination with nature, science, and the environment, she has incorporated both Nature’s systems and Nature’s randomness into her work. She earned her BFA from the University of Dayton, Ohio, where she studied art, education, and sociology. Traveling west, she completed her MFA at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. She has been awarded an NEA Fellowship and several residencies, including Djerassi Resident Artist Program in Woodside California and the Cold Press north of London. Her work can be found in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, CA, the Eli Broad Foundation, and in private and corporate collections in the US and abroad. Andrews has exhibited extensively throughout California and the US, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the Bolinas Museum, the Los Gatos Museum, Southern Exposure in San Francisco, and the Tucson Museum of Art. Internationally, she has exhibited in Japan, Israel and England. She lives and works in Emeryville, California.
Top to bottom: Coalgem 1; Coalgem 4; Coalgem 13; Coalgem 5; Coalgem 9 2013; anthracite coal; size varies, none exceeds 3-1/4 x 4 x 3 in.
Credits & Thanks
Interview by Donna Brookman, artist and writer Photography on pages 2, 12–13, 17, and front cover by Sibila Savage Catalog design by Amy Evans McClure Printed by Solstice Press, Oakland, CA Front cover: Descending; 2014; steel; 21 x 10 x 10 in. Back cover: Catcher 2; 2014; galvanized metal, wire; 11 x 11-1/4 x 3 in. www.mariandrews.com