MITRA FABIAN
Artist Statement
My artwork is a reflection of local human industry. I am a sculptor and installation artist working almost exclusively with manufactured materials- the leftovers, the by-products, the remnants of human activity. As I build with these materials, I deconstruct them or alter them in such a way that they are not immediately recognizable. The reconstruction is in some way determined by what the material is capable of doing, but not meant to do. The new physical form is always more organic, often mimicking the appearance of natural patterns, landscape, magnified cells, or mold. My material use serves as a commentary on the increasingly modified condition of humans, which pits nature against culture and blurs the line between organic and manufactured.
My current body of work consists of sculptures and works on paper made with resistors, capacitors, and diodes, the candy-colored components one finds on circuit boards. The sculptures consist of perforated abstract ceramic forms into which I insert the wire ends of the resistors. The works on paper reference textile, geometric, and organic patterns.
I am interested in the fact that these materials are ubiquitous in almost any electronic device and
are intrinsic to the industry that thrives in Silicon Valley where I live. Intriguingly, these kinds of
objects have their limitations in an industry that seeks to get smaller, sleeker, and faster; are they
on an edge of technological extinction? In using these components I want to comment upon the
slowness of my process in opposition to the immediacy, technological advancement, and
“progress” that these materials are thought to provide. And because these elements quickly end
up as e-waste, I also seek to illustrate a certain level of waste and intentional obsolescence that
they can signify.
Mitra Fabian was born in Iran and raised in Boston. She received a BA in Art with an Anthropology minor from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She located to Los Angeles in 1996 and began to show her work both locally and nationally. She returned to school in 2002 to receive an MFA from California State University, Northridge. As of May 2005, she lives and works in the Bay Area. Fabian has been showing her work nationally since 1997, and had a solo show at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007. Her work has also been featured in shows the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the Laguna Art Museum, and the Armory Center for the Arts. She has also shown with prominent galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the summer of 2009, she was an artist in residence at Bemis in Omaha, NE. Her work has been reviewed by several media organizations including Spark, KQED Television, Ruby Mag, an online Argentinean art magazine, Angeleno Magazine, and Artweek. She is a professor at West Valley College teaching sculpture and ceramics.
My current body of work consists of sculptures and works on paper made with resistors, capacitors, and diodes, the candy-colored components one finds on circuit boards. The sculptures consist of perforated abstract ceramic forms into which I insert the wire ends of the resistors. The works on paper reference textile, geometric, and organic patterns.
I am interested in the fact that these materials are ubiquitous in almost any electronic device and
are intrinsic to the industry that thrives in Silicon Valley where I live. Intriguingly, these kinds of
objects have their limitations in an industry that seeks to get smaller, sleeker, and faster; are they
on an edge of technological extinction? In using these components I want to comment upon the
slowness of my process in opposition to the immediacy, technological advancement, and
“progress” that these materials are thought to provide. And because these elements quickly end
up as e-waste, I also seek to illustrate a certain level of waste and intentional obsolescence that
they can signify.
Mitra Fabian was born in Iran and raised in Boston. She received a BA in Art with an Anthropology minor from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She located to Los Angeles in 1996 and began to show her work both locally and nationally. She returned to school in 2002 to receive an MFA from California State University, Northridge. As of May 2005, she lives and works in the Bay Area. Fabian has been showing her work nationally since 1997, and had a solo show at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007. Her work has also been featured in shows the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the Laguna Art Museum, and the Armory Center for the Arts. She has also shown with prominent galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the summer of 2009, she was an artist in residence at Bemis in Omaha, NE. Her work has been reviewed by several media organizations including Spark, KQED Television, Ruby Mag, an online Argentinean art magazine, Angeleno Magazine, and Artweek. She is a professor at West Valley College teaching sculpture and ceramics.
[email protected]
T: 310-838-3685
T: 310-838-3685
