Passage

8.5’x9’x15’ Corrugated tin, steel, cast iron, braided wire, concrete 2019 2019 Artist Intern      Artist Statement Passage draws imagery from culverts, tunnels, buoys, bell clappers, and organic forms to explore themes of transition, loss, and connection. Hoffer’s work often deals with grief and memory and their artistic process for Passage began with questions. Instead of running away from grief or change, how might it enrich us to sit with loss? How can acknowledging someone or something that is lost allow us to connect with that someone or something and how can this help us forge a new way forward in times of transition? The cast iron droplets that hang from the piece were originally inspired by imagery of bell clappers and the idea of the tongues of bells existing without their bodies. Hoffer imagines these drops as voices or spirits, no longer with body, but still able to heard if the space and time is taken to connect with them. However, as an artist Hoffer believes viewers’ interpretations of art are just as much a part of the piece as their original intentions and is happy for people to view the drops and the overall piece as something different from the ideas that first inspired the sculpture. The patterns for the drops were originally made out of clay dug up from Franconia’s soil. The drops were made by many hands, some of them visitors to the park and often times kids who were interested in what Hoffer was doing and wanted to make drops of their own. In the end, Hoffer hopes that Passage creates a meditative space where people are invited to pause, feel, wonder, and connect.

Fiona Hoffer

fionahoffer.com Born: Boston, MA, USA, 1993 Resides: Chicago, IL, USA Education BA, Oberlin College, 2018