An Interview with Claudia Sbrissa
Graham met the lovely Claudia Sbrissa long before I did, but my first interaction with her - and her work - were during a visit to her studio while she was in residence at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts just outside of Ithaca, NY. Claudia teaches at St John’s University in Queens, NY and covers fine arts courses in book arts, drawing and printmaking - a hybridity that she further extends in her own work to involve methods of tactile installation, video, photography, and environmental interventions. She brings her typically-Claudia thoughtfulness to her answers below.
What Remains, 2016. Site responsive installation, 25' x 20' x 16’
When did you start printing?
I was enrolled in an undergraduate fine art program at York University in Toronto, Canada. In my second year, I wanted to take a painting class, which was full. The only other class that fit my schedule was called “Graphics”. I had no idea what that was! Once the course began under the tutelage of Kei Hayano, Eugenio Tellez and Dan Olsen, I connected with the process and I became hooked.
Where do you typically make your work? Home studio? Shared space?
I have a studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where I’ve been working for the past 12 years. It’s a private space in one of the last remaining industrial brick buildings on a street lined with condominiums. I share the floor with two other artists.
What Remains, 2016. Site responsive installation, 25' x 20' x 16’
You often participate in residencies in different part of the world. Do you like to allow for different location/colleagues or studio facilities to produce unexpected outcomes in your work? Can you think of a specific instance where you really had to be responsive to unique circumstances?
I’ve been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in several international residencies. These experiences facilitate an engagement with one’s work in new and unexpected ways as one negotiates the challenges of a new environment and allowing that to inspire one’s work.
My practice incorporates site specific installation work. It is always exciting in its inherent possibilities yet humbling in acknowledging one’s limits. For me it’s about the conversation that emerges between the artist and site.
One such unique experience was an installation I created in a repurposed dairy barn at Salem Art Works (SAW) in upstate New York. The installation entitled θ (kathedrale di), highlighted the architecture of the barn through the strategic placement of crocheted lines of material strung from various points to demarcate key structural features of the barn’s construction, including the beamed ceiling. The 14 columns were touched by these lines marking the main load bearing points of θ in the building, creating a nave, which in turn opened up to the space above. I was onsite for seven days during which I discovered that the lines were very sensitive to the changing atmosphere, sometimes taunt, sometimes sagging. Thus the lines became hyper ‘climatrometers’ measuring the atmospheric changes. Another exchange occurred when it was discovered that standing in a particular spot in the barn allowed one to hear the sounds of a far off stream, which could not be heard elsewhere. I positioned a small white pedestal in the nave, marking the audio portal built by θ, which was accessed only during quiet conditions.
Θ (KATHEDRALE DI), 2013. Site sensitive installation, Salem Art Works (SAW)
Θ (KATHEDRALE DI), 2013. Site sensitive installation, Salem Art Works (SAW)
How do you see your print background informing your more expanded practice?
The medium of printmaking is full of mystery. I enjoy the physical aspects of the process and the handwork involved in creating a printed work. In “pulling a print” there is always an element of surprise. The practice of printmaking thus allows for a kind of knowing through doing yet also a trust in the outcome, which is always enigmatic. This balance reflects what is central to my practice: an engagement with the world around me and the wonder of that encounter.
from Ellis, 2018. Woven security envelopes, 9.5" x 8"
Tess, 2014. Woven security envelopes, 15" x 15"
As part of a university printmaking program have you seen a change in how printmaking is taught/thought about since you were a student?
I started teaching in 2003 and since then I have seen significant changes in the role of printmaking's expanded boundaries, both conceptually and technically. Printmaking practices today are engaged with some of the most cutting edge technological advancements along with the rise of social art practice. Students have access to a huge range of information and inspiration from hybrid printmaking techniques to the particular imperatives informing the work of contemporary artists working in the field.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
I would love to collaborate with a landscape architect. My work investigates place in both the natural and built environment. My practice incorporates a good deal of site work including installation, much of which is ephemeral. It would be exciting to work collaboratively to expand my own learnings in conceiving of a permeant project that involves the honoring and care of natural environments.
Bridge, 2019. Drawing performance, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy
Portion, 2019. Site, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy
Portion, 2019. Rubbing 9” x 12”, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on a series of sculptures entitled “of small things”. I work with found nature collected during my travels and locally on daily walks. I highlight the objects in various ways revealing their concealed or unnoticed beauty.
I am also working on a film project that incorporates rubbings and sound collected onsite from a recent residency at Civita Institute in Italy.
Cristata, 2018. Coral, gold leaf 3 ¾”x 1 ¾”x 5”
Chestnut (salt), 2018. Chestnut, gold leaf, 1 ¾ ” round