Shirley Wegner
Shirley Wegner
Workspace Program Resident 2009
My process at Dieu Donné began with an idea to create collages as part of my series Studies for Construction Sites and Ruins, which explores the ambiguity between construction and destruction sites. As I began my residency, I realized that the way I approached paper was slowly shifting away from working on paper to working with paper; in other words, paper was no longer a blank sheet onto which the image was mounted, but rather it became a pliable and sculptural material in and of itself. Working through the challenges offered in the residency was extremely important to my practice. It taught me to let go of any preconceptions I may have had, and to embrace the endless possibilities that lie in the process of papermaking.
Tractor Traces is an installation made of hundreds of paper forms in different sizes and colors. Unlike the imprinted traces of tractor tracks, these cast traces shift from negative to positive, from an indentation to a relief. To create the piece, I first sculpted the traces individually and created a large mold. Each of the traces was then cast into the mold by layering, pressing, and compressing the paper pulp. As the work evolved, color was introduced, and I arrived at the four earth tones in this installation.
Tractor Traces was inspired by an earlier installation where the traces were cast in ceramic and suspended in midair to form a skeleton-like shape. The installation at Dieu Donné offers an allusion to drawing, as the empty wall replaces the paper and allows paper itself to exist as a three dimensional mark. Tractor Traces recreates an imprint of signs left in a desolate landscape. In its fragility and vulnerability, it allows for the harsh image of the tractor to resurface and to coexist with the soft trail it left behind. It is left to the viewer to tread the fine line between a site of construction and a landscape of demolition.
My thanks to Steven Orlando, Creative Projects Director, and to interns Jose Estevez, Caitlin Everett, Andree Ferdinand, Julia Goodman, and Tatiana Kronberg.
— Shirley Wegner, 2009
In the Studio
About the Artist
Shirley Wegner (b. Tel Aviv, Israel) received a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Arts in 2002 and graduated from the Hamidrasha School of Art, Israel in 1994. In 2009, she was a recipient of the Islip Art Museum Winter Studio Program Residency. In 2010 she will have a solo exhibition at Habres+Partner Gallery, Vienna. Wegner has had numerous
Her work has been exhibited internationally in the United States, Europe and Israel. Her one-person exhibitions include Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv (The Unphotographed, May 2019 and Maa’seh Merkabah -The Act Of Assembly, January 2017), Farideh Cadot Gallery, Paris (New Works, 2013, and Painting, 2015), Slag Gallery, NY (Two Times Gray, 2012), Dana Gallery, Yad-Mordechai, Israel (Paper-Pile-Scissors, 2012), Dan Contemporary, (Landscape Anomalies, 2012), The Islip Museum of Art, New York (Construction Site at The Carriage House, 2009), Goch Museum, Goch, Germany (On Landscape, Gray and Other Geographies, 2007, with Cat.) among others.
Her work has been featured in many group shows, among them are The Kallmann Museum, Ismaning, Germany (Modell-Naturen in der zeitgenössischen FotografieThe Islip Museum of Art, Islip, NY (Remembering Things Past, 2015), BAC gallery, Montreal, Canada (Vestiges, 2015), Grand Palais, Paris, Paris-Photo Art Fair (with Farideh Cadot Gallery, 2014), The Haifa Museum of Art, Israel (Out Of Sight, 2015), The Long Island Museum of Art, New York (Here and Now, 2014), Dieu Donne’ Gallery, New York (Artists In Residence Workspace Program Grant, 2009), The Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, (Affirmative Action, 2003, and The Land of Shadow, 2002). Wegner is a recipient of Artis Professional Development Workshop Grant (with Creative Capital, 2012), and Mifal Ha’pais exhibition grant for her exhibition at Dana Gallery, Israel in 2012. Other grants and residencies include: The Islip Museum's In Process residency and award for Winter Studio Program (2009), Dieu Donne’ Workspace Program grant, New York, NY (2008), and a residency award and exhbition from The Josef and Hilde Wilberz foundation (with Abteiberg Museum), Mönchengladbach, Germany (2006-7). (Source: Artist’s Website)
For more information, please visit their website: https://www.shirleywegner.com