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April Wright

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“Regurgitated Wall” 2019 24"x 8'x 12" cotton gauze, cheesecloth, tracing paper, flour paste, and shellac

Through paper casting a construction material which is static, strong, and heavy; I’m taking away all preconceived notions of a cinder block and altering its function and perspective just by changing the material that it originally was made of. Still referencing what it was used for, I build a sculptural wall that is evolving. Now the form is fragile, vulnerable, and each cinder has a precarious weight bearing gesture. Using paper to build walls is not practical by any means, but here it stands in as a metaphor for emotional walls that can be built between two people. Building a wall with paper gives this sense of false security that becomes this ephemeral experience when viewed as a sculpture.

Regurgitated Wall (close up)

Paper Cinder
14" x 8" x 7"
2019

Paper Cinder
14" x 8" x 7"
2019

"Beauty for Ashes"
fired ceramic shards carved from a lump of clay, kozo paper, cotton gauze,
cheesecloth, tracing paper, clay slip, thread, charcoal, and ash.
132"x 48"x 36"
2019

Carving into a lump of clay and saving the shavings that are usually discarded, I care for
them as they go through the fire and are sifted out of ashes, collected again, and put on display.

Above the shards is a tattered and torn handmade net that has been dipped in slip and
filled with paper casted bricks. Tension is created as the net hangs in an obscure way over the shards to make it unclear if the net is about to be released over the shards or if it has already been lifted. Empathy is expressed amid this melancholic moment of disrepair.

(close up for Beauty for Ashes)

(close up) Beauty for Ashes

(close up) Beauty for Ashes

gallery shot edited.jpg

"Tending the Garden"
worn towels, bed sheets, oven mittens, curtains, pillow cases, afghan blankets, yarn, colored poly-fil, torn, knotted and woven onto a wooden garden trellis covered in unfired stoneware poured over the sculpture and dragged around
4'x 6'x 186"
2019

Looking at the physical boundaries of a home and perimeters that surround it, some immediate signifiers are fencing and gardening. Fences serve as a visual screen to protect the home. Even though they can still be viewed through, they are still walls that mark boundaries. Tending a garden requires constant care and attention, and so does the home. If well taken care of, it will produce healthy food for the family. Thinking about what lies underneath the garden is even more interesting. What are the root systems of a home? Rope itself is a row or string consisting of things united by braiding, twining, or threading. All throughout history rope has been used for pulling, lifting, and connecting-and roots do the same. There are strong visual connections between ropes made with domestic cloth to personal roots about people’s experiences of growing up in a home and leaving it behind.

Tending the garden (close up)

Tending the garden (close up)

"Regurgitated Home"
poultry wire, repurposed paper, fake sinew, cotton gauze, thread, black clay slip, and shellac.
48" x 48"x 21"
2018

Regurgitated Home (close up)

"Broken Windows"
kozo paper and adhesive
7' x 13' x 3'
2020

There are eighteen windows in the home that I grew up in and those windows a gave me a perception of what was outside and inside my environment. Paper casting window frames with no glass allows me to create disjointed lines that are in a state of flux. There is an apparent struggle that I am trying to suggest, what was once stiff and straight is now bent or twisted shifting into another perspective. Each window becomes an anomaly separate from all other windows. However, together on the wall they join, they connect to form lines. Those lines are directed as they come out into space, they build into each other capturing moments of struggle, shifting, growing, or just being.

Broken Windows (close up)

"Window Gesture II"
paper, clay, and adhesi
4'x 1'x 2'
2019

"Innocence Lost"
wallpaper, coloring book pages, house paint, and drywall
7' x 3' x 1"
2019

"Beauty for Ashes"(Iteration II)
2020
1' x 4' x 1'

edited bricks.jpg

bricks 2.jpg

"Hold Steady"
tracing paper, tar paper, paint, adhesive, and stoneware
9' x 14' x 4'
2020

Hold Steady (close up)

Hold Steady (close up)

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