- Emma Lindsey
- Nov 22, 2024
- 3 min read
For this awareness post, I'm sourcing my information from this article by Grace Ebert: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/04/lauren-fensterstock-mosaic-sculptures/
Fenterstock's work is a type of sculpture created through the usage of crystals and minerals, usually in a mixed-media format. Although her work contains motifs of stars, clouds, flowers, and elements of nature common to our lives, her inspiration draws from the transformation of stars throughout their life cycles, and often acts as a metaphor for personal transformation. According to the article linked above, Fenterstock claims that the reason for such motifs is that “pairs of stars speak to the complexities of personal connections… In the newest work—which explores vast sky maps filled with multiple constellations—[she] attempt[s] to move beyond a single star or an isolated self to show the entanglement of the cosmic whole.”
With this thematic significance in mind, I will look over a few of my favorite pieces from this collection and detail my reactions, thoughts, and analyses below.
"The totality of time lusters the dusk"
Mixed media installation
To me, this piece is the one that most embodies the "dying star motif," without delving too much into natural themes like clouds or flowers. I reallty love this piece as an introduction to her work, because I feel like it really helps the initial viewer to understand the inspiration for her work, even without reading about her work in a deeper way. I also find the title - "The totality of time lusters the dusk" fascinating. From my research outside of this article, I've found that it's essentially a reference to modern-day issues like climate change, and how celestial themes can be used as metaphors for larger issues. In terms of connections to my own work, I appreciate this piece because of it's subtle, but present, connection to politics and current events. I always like to insert meaningful themes, especially political ones, into the work I do, so this is a really good example of something I may do in the future that isn't too on-the-nose.
This piece is a second example of the same show, "The totality of time lusters the dusk." From an immediate visual standpoint, this work feels a bit brighter and less ominous, but I think it still really embodies the ideas described above involving climate change and more political events. The interpretation of this theme does feel more apparent at first glance with this piece: the clouds almost look like they're melting into the rest of the atmosphere, and everything is moving downwards. In terms of technicalities, I do think it's interesting how Fenterstock was able to create the illusion that the clouds were floating through the drips acting as stands, and I really love every bit of stained-glass, mosaic-eque detail on the clouds themselves - it's realy impressive that she was able to add so much of this detail while keeping it round, and not too geometric in shape. I'm especially drawn to the small, beaded details in this work, which is also what drew me to Fenterstock's works as a whole. I'm definitely more interested in 3d works and painting than I am drawing, and I'd love to do a combination of traditionally 3d and traditionally 2d components of my personal work. It's good to be able to reference other artists' work, especially because the beaded/mosaid nature of Fenterstock's work could easily translate to work on a canvas, paper, or fabric.
