VERNISSAGE 21.6., 19 Uhr, AUSSTELLUNG 22.-23.6., 17-20 Uhr, TALK 23.6., 16 Uhr
Artist Statement
My work explores the confusion, struggle, and play that occur in both mental and physical liminal spaces. These transitional places and situations act as waiting areas between one point of space and time to the next.
My interest in liminality is the direct result of having lived a nomadic lifestyle from a very young age, giving me a heightened sensitivity to indeterminate states. As we traverse from one place or life event to the next, our identity is immediately challenged by our new environment and experiences, causing an imbalance that can be simultaneously unsettling and thrilling. The liminal veil signifies the area between the threshold and the place that waits before us. My paintings represent this veil.
My work builds upon my own personal experiences and those of friends and loved ones, and explores the themes of hybridity, nostalgia, repatriation, and loss. My paintings include a complex combination of social media images, pop culture references, Japanese aesthetics, and Western sensibilities. My canvases function as liminal spaces that allow me the opportunity to further explore and critique my assumptions about the world while enabling the renegotiation of my fluctuating identity.
My work reflects that awkward and intriguing in-betweeness so familiar to us all, and the desire to occupy a position on both sides of a threshold.
Biography
Michelle Eccles is a Florida native whose interests in travel and culture have led her to various corners of the world. Most recently she lived and worked in Japan prior to receiving her Master of Fine Arts at Florida State University. She taught painting and drawing courses for the FSU Department of Art and is the recipient of the Florence Teaching Fellowship. She currently lives near Rome with her Italian husband and big, sweet American mutt, and continues to teach at the Florida State University International Programs campus in Florence.