Emilie benes brzezinski biography channel

This is how I came up with this very personal metaphor full-size figures of family members in tree trunks.

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Combining photographs with wood was a drastic step, but once I began to experiment with different kinds of paper, glue, colors, and methods of hollowing and smoothing out the trunks, and once I had tested samples of single trunks with images, I was swept up by the potential and kept working, for two years, until it was done. AG-S: Did the meaning of Family Trees change over time, especially as you reinstalled it in different locations?

EB: Sometimes the most difficult space turns out to be the one that provides what the installation needs. The ground floor of the Katzen Art Museum, with its angled walls, complex windows, and dramatic staircase, created the perfect venue for Family Trees. I could have left it smaller, but it was important to include all of my immediate family in order to make my statement complete—to myself.

It was a catharsis of sorts, a final statement about my identity as a person from Central Europe, that I have grown roots in America through my children and grandchildren. It is worth noting that in showing this family history I did not go back to my ancestors, but forward, to my offspring.

Emilie benes brzezinski biography channel: Courtesy of Mika Brzezinski. Emilie

AG-S: Your forms activate the space around them—especially when they grow into larger installations such as Vortex, Forest, and Titans. How do you respond to the challenges of specific sites? EB: The relationship between site and sculpture, the spacing, the juxtapositions, the lighting—all of this affects how a work is presented to the viewer.

Take Vortexfor instance. Seen in an enclosed room, where all the pieces are tightly lined up next to one another, this group is quite different from its iteration as Skyline Passagewhere it reaches out into the enormity of the sky to make a profound statement about space itself. When Titans was installed on the banks of the River Vltava in Prague, the components were spaced in a manner sufficiently strong to counter any distractions.

The spaces between individual parts of a sculptural group are the glue that holds them together as the forms speak to each other. Would you say that the works shown there, notably Ukraine Trunkrepresented a retreat from the explicit symbolism of Family Trees?

Emilie benes brzezinski biography channel: Emilie Beneš Brzezinski was a Swiss-American

EB: Ukraine Trunk is definitely about something broader—the human condition as expressed under specific historical circumstances—about unhappy people revolting against a regime perceived as oppressive. The idea came from a small photo in the New York Times of Kiev Square, filled with grim and rather unhappy looking people, waiting to know their fate—or perhaps making an effort not to accept it without a fight.

I tracked down the Turkish photographer who had made the image, Bulent Kilic, and he gave me permission to use his photograph. Over the years, I have met other Central-European artists and curators, both in Europe and in the States. There is a natural inclination and curiosity that brings us together and compels us to help each other. My friendship with Ursula von Rydingsvard has lasted throughout the years.

Magdalena Abakanowicz came out to McLean to visit my installation Aftermath inand we have kept up with each other since. She helped me to facilitate an exhibition at the Uzjazdowski Palace in Warsaw, and I helped her to coordinate a show in Chicago. These various personalities and players, however vague and amorphous as a group, are very important to maintaining my sense of identity.

AG-S: You often underscore the idea of dialogue when you talk about your relationship with wood—that your sculpture is a dialogue between you and nature. Does this exchange feel daunting at times? Do you ever find yourself uncertain as you approach an already existing form? EB: My dialogue with the wood has changed, though those changes have happened in an almost imperceptible way.

The chainsaw, for instance, was at first only a tool for blocking out the basic form.

Emilie benes brzezinski biography channel: Emilie Benes Brzezinski was born

She graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Art History in She received a scholarship to Boston Museum School, Massachusetts, in and completed a one year apprenticeship at Atelier du Feu in She started her art career in the s with a series of solo shows in Washington, D. Emilie has exhibited in the United States and Eastern Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic where her family is from.

They had three children; Ian, Mark and Mika. During the last two decades, Brzezinski has had several gallery and museum installations both in the United States and overseas. Understanding the work of Emilie Brzezinski is acknowledging her astute awareness of nature, and her deep respect for the continuity of life. The sculpture of Emilie Brzezinski is the embodiment of the extension of life even when the life withers, and appears seemingly unimportant.

Be the first to learn about unique upcoming collector opportunities featuring her timeless works. About Emilie Brzezinski brzezinski T In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Czech-American sculptor — GenevaSwitzerland. Jupiter, FloridaU. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Ian Mark Mika. Education and career [ edit ].