Artist Statement

Home. Comfort. Familiarity. We are selective in what we remember, and when we remember it, sometimes taking cues from a song, a smell, a color or texture. It has always seemed to me there is a narrative of sorts that each of us has with our beloved things. Through accumulative sculpture and installations I am sharing some of my own inner conversations with stuff, as well as imagined stories triggered by others’ cast-off objects.

My aim is to share an experience, hopefully a true moment of wonder, with the viewer, so I work with things I can get in large quantities. The bold scale of installations offers a new way of experiencing a known quantity; the intimate scale of small sculpture lends itself to close examination. In both cases, there is evidence of research: printed type is arranged in patterns to lose its literary meaning and starts to resemble bark-like abstractions; frayed edges are aligned, and then released in a way that is reminiscent of geological strata. I find that when presented with a collection of like objects, I want to catalog them in some way. I try to find a system to make sense of the abundance. This is an important part of my research when developing new art work: touching the collection, ordering, stacking, and at times breaking the stuff. I gain understanding of the materials through physical manipulation. I forget, for a time, where the materials came from, what the materials were used for originally. Once I’ve satisfied my curiosity, subscribing to an art-work specific working process is key, because the process is then repeated until I’ve produced enough stuff to create three-dimensional patterns, to embrace absurd volumes. I want the labor evident in the work to be awe-inspiring.  I hope to shape space with stuff that is as transformative, as it itself is being transformed. 

And yet, at some point, I reengage with each collection’s context and recognize the stories innate in the objects. While I feel strongly that all stuff, natural or man-made, has integrity, I am not always comfortable making the known content, the assumed meaning my own. I make every effort to acknowledge this kind of disconnect when it exists—this, too can be part of a abstract narrative. I aim to be respectful of the materials and their past, grateful to those that have shared their collections with me.

Find more of Rita’s work on her website at www.ritagrendze.com

Biography

Rita Grendze is a first generation American born to immigrant Latvian parents. She grew up between rural Rosenfeld, Manitoba, Canada and suburban Lakewood, Ohio. She is the youngest of six opinionated, rowdy, loving siblings (Grendze was the quiet one). Grendze received her BFA in Fiber from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1987; her MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1994. Immediately following her graduate work, Grendze received a Fulbright scholarship and spent a year in Latvia studying symbolism in Latvian folk costume. Grendze has taught at Maryland Institute College of Art in the Fiber and Foundations departments, as well as at Jersey City University. Since moving to the Chicago area in 2001, she has worked with Redmoon Theater creating costumes and props for outdoor spectacles, has taught community workshops in Kane County and been involved with the studios and gallery leadership at Water Street Studios in Batavia, IL. Her sculpture has been shown broadly, including monumental installations in St. Charles, IL; Chicago, IL; St. Joseph, MI; Reedsburg,WI, and at the Latvian National Library, in Riga, Latvia. Rita Grendze lives, works, and adores her husband and two sons in Geneva, IL.