Untitled
Artist:
Constance Lowe
(American, born 1951)
Date: 1993
Dimensions:
67 x 74 in. (170.2 x 188 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of ArtPace, a foundation of Contemporary Art / San Antonio, to the Margaret Pace Willson Collection
Object number: 97.20.a-g
Copyright: © Constance Lowe
Label Text
"My work has always been involved with familiar
images and objects and the significance of the
materials from which they are made."
Constance Lowe
Lowe's working methods, materials, and choices of imagery are usually generated by integrating her philosophical or theoretical ideas with visual invention. Because her work is never intended to convey only one specific idea, viewers are encouraged to discover their own meanings in it. Such interpretations may differ from those that the artist intended, as they may be dependent upon our varied backgrounds and experiences and may even change over time.
This work is layered with both personal and universal meanings. The army blanket evokes childhood memories for Lowe and might also be seen as a signifier for the large military population of San Antonio. Overall, however, this untitled work is filled with multiple references to dualities that can be identified as essential elements of the world we live in. The artist's process involves both industrial fabrication, seen in the conical funnels attached to the blanket, and the activity of her own hand, visible in the almond-shape motifs that she painted on the blankets. Through her choice of materials, Lowe conjoined geometric and organic forms, the former being the hard cubic structure of the wooden box and the latter the soft, undulating edges of the draped wool blanket. Because it was fabricated by a carpenter and resembles a ventilator, the box represents the industrial world, while the blanket refers to home and domesticity as well as the military. Additionally, the blanket was once functional, while the box is forever non-functional. These various qualities, along with the cones and almond motifs, may also be interpreted as the duality of masculine and feminine. Other points of reference that the artist considered in making the assemblage center on cyclical activities such as eating and sleeping, as well as on issues of framing and containment within an artwork.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
images and objects and the significance of the
materials from which they are made."
Constance Lowe
Lowe's working methods, materials, and choices of imagery are usually generated by integrating her philosophical or theoretical ideas with visual invention. Because her work is never intended to convey only one specific idea, viewers are encouraged to discover their own meanings in it. Such interpretations may differ from those that the artist intended, as they may be dependent upon our varied backgrounds and experiences and may even change over time.
This work is layered with both personal and universal meanings. The army blanket evokes childhood memories for Lowe and might also be seen as a signifier for the large military population of San Antonio. Overall, however, this untitled work is filled with multiple references to dualities that can be identified as essential elements of the world we live in. The artist's process involves both industrial fabrication, seen in the conical funnels attached to the blanket, and the activity of her own hand, visible in the almond-shape motifs that she painted on the blankets. Through her choice of materials, Lowe conjoined geometric and organic forms, the former being the hard cubic structure of the wooden box and the latter the soft, undulating edges of the draped wool blanket. Because it was fabricated by a carpenter and resembles a ventilator, the box represents the industrial world, while the blanket refers to home and domesticity as well as the military. Additionally, the blanket was once functional, while the box is forever non-functional. These various qualities, along with the cones and almond motifs, may also be interpreted as the duality of masculine and feminine. Other points of reference that the artist considered in making the assemblage center on cyclical activities such as eating and sleeping, as well as on issues of framing and containment within an artwork.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
