UNIVERSITY PARK — “Deconstructed Form: An Investigation of Silhouette, Contour and Shape,” an installation of works by ceramacist and sculptor Stephanie Seguin, will be featured through Sunday, Dec. 4, at Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Galleries. A public reception will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1
Using clay, paper and installation, Seguin will create an immersive space that is not complete until a viewer is present. Her total installation not only physically immerses the viewer, but is psychologically absorptive — much like how one gets lost in an epic novel or feels fully immersed in a movie or theater production. By giving the viewer a sense of being engulfed by a space, Seguin invites viewers to sit and spend time with the work and to focus on their relationships to the objects, rather than focusing on the objects alone.
Taking into consideration the relationship of the clay and paper vessels, the proximity of the viewer, directionality of the viewer’s gaze, lighting and shadows, Seguin attempts to create an awareness of how one’s perspective changes their perception. Her minimalist approach allows viewers to inject their own subjectivity and perceive the work through their own projections and interpretations.
Seguin’s installation includes nearly 100 clay and paper vessels. The cast paper forms mimic the hand-built clay vessels to create a form of after-image and build tension between the differing visual textures and weights. She deliberately chose to work with clay, paper and wood in this exhibition as these materials are seen frequently through historical and contemporary design, and using them allows her to bridge the familiar with the unfamiliar.
Seguin earned her bachelor of fine arts degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2009. She has since been an apprentice in Whitefish, Mont., a studio assistant and instructor at Maho Bay Clay Works on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, and a workshop and facility assistant at La Maridiana International School of the Ceramic Arts in Italy. She currently is an MFA student at Penn State.
