Pushmi Pullyu
8’ 4″’ x 9’ x 22’
Fabricated steel, industrial hardware, chain, swing, handle, wheels, snowplow
2018
2018 Intern Artist
Artist Statement
My work explores imaginative relationships between objects and their function. Using both kinetic and interactive elements I ask questions of the precarious relationship between utility and futility. Looking for unusual, unorthodox, or unexpected ways to fulfill functional roles I hope to challenge social norms and stereotypes. The work calls upon the viewer to question their own passive or active role in society. Are we contributing to homogeneity, simply fulfilling obligation or expected behavior? Or can our interaction within the world be informed in the many possible ways of seeing, as an active dialogue that risks vulnerability and awkwardness? My intent for my artworks is to utilize objects of function to access and explore fundamental human characteristics: vulnerability, awkwardness, and humor.
Pushmi Pullyu, reflects my experience living, working, and making art at Franconia Sculpture Park. At the intersection of work and play, the sculpture calls attention to both the physical “push and pull” of labor, as well as the intellectual strain involved with creating a work of art. Engaging in a dialogue and living/working with other artists is a challenging, humorous, and life changing experience. The park offers a myriad of works that reflect this: challenging our perception and encouraging a multiplicity of seeing and empathizing with the world around us.
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Chelsea Tinklenberg
Born: Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, 1990
Resides: Greensboro, NC, USA
Education
MFA, University of North Carolina – Greensboro, 2018
BFA, Northern Arizona University, 2015