Allyson Strafella
Allyson Strafella
Workspace Program Resident 2007-08
I approached my residency at Dieu Donné with two goals: first to make a significant jump in scale; and second, to make paper tailored for use with a customized typewriter I have recently built. This new machine has an over-scale carriage which will allow me to use paper up to three feet in width. The scale of my drawings had primarily been determined by the standard width of a Smith Corona typewriter. During experimentation in the early stages of my residency, I arrived at a 40 x 60 inch scale, which I quickly adapted to. The forms and images were taken from my visual language, however my mode of manufacture shifted significantly from the mechanical to the physical. I have been committed to the mechanical gesture of the typewriter for 15 years, but found using my body more directly to make the work freeing in introducing new possibilities.
I also intended to make the paper as thin as possible, which has not been the nature of the materials at such a large scale. Over time I have also been interested in working with a paper that is second to the marks that it carries; I am now working with large-scale paper that was produced at the mill for my customized machine. The experience of working at Dieu Donné has helped me to do some fundamental problem-solving, and has opened up the possibilities of my drawing practice significantly. The expanded scale was important to the form and content of my work and ideas as I move forward to produce a body of large-scale typewriter drawings.
–Allyson Strafella, November 2008
In the Studio
About the Artist
Allyson Strafella (b. 1969) lives and works in Hudson, New York. She received her MA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The artist’s work has been exhibited in recent solo shows including twilight at Gallery Joe (Philadelphia, 2011) and Allyson Strafella: worksight at Von Lintel Gallery (New York, 2011) as well as numerous group shows. Her work is included in various public and private collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Hammer Museum, the Sally & Wynn Kramarsky Collection, among others.
For more information, please visit their website: https://allysonstrafella.info/