From Japanese Gardens to pre-fab subdivision neighborhoods, the need to invent a perfect place is embedded in our collective psyche. The structures in my work borrow from the language of archictects' models and stage props. I am interested in blurring the boundries between the constructed environment and the natural. There is a sweetness in these worlds I create suggested by the luscious, candied frosting aesthetic. The desire for them is tempered by the exposure of their materiality. Nails, foam, shelf paper, and housepaint remind us of an order inherent in our experience of place (home), yet the exploitation of these materials invent a land that is otherworldly. Residing somewhere between painting and sculpture, my work aims to simultaneously reference where we are and where we wish we could be.
Soft Architecture is a place in which structure is defined by memory. The lines dividing interior and exterior are broken down, creating an uncanny relationship between organic forms and manufactured materials. Fueled by a rigorous investigation of a remembered space and time, the "real" becomes hyper-real. Shifts in scale and vibrating fields of contrasting colors result in a customized utopia.
- Jenene Nagy 2007