Alicia Basinger

In using a broad range of material processes and the consequential transformations generated by my own hands, I create imaginative fantastical structures. These structures allude to ideas of growth, metamorphosis, phenomenon, deterioration, all of which signal our relationship to nature. I am interested in constructing a stage or imaginative space where the viewer may enter, escape or possibly get lost within.

I consider myself a materialist and an alchemist. I am fascinated and seduced by the physical properties and phenomenon of materials: the variant grains of wood, the vulcanization of resin, or the saturation of color. I am always considering different ways that I would like to exploit or show off the characteristics of a material, like an alchemist trying to turn a mundane stone into a gem.

My work begins by investigating a material's properties, and I draw my ideas through the process of working with a specific material or group of materials. This way of working allows for true collaboration with the material. I start each endeavor in my studio with an investigation of line, color, texture, yet I have no fixed interpretations of the final piece. The final piece is determined when it carries the capacity or the potential to be something other than a static object, when it resonates an implied movement/transition in the form of growth or decay. I am interested in what I can gain through material manipulation, and the moments that I have control versus when I must let go and follow the material's logic.