Aside from having a great name, Kendall Buster’s work has the advantage of coming from one of the great fodder-generators for this here blog, Neil, who I will from now on refer to as my friend and not my brother’s! Like my brother, Neil went to Hopkins for college and just recently the campus installed a large sculptural piece from Kendall called Vessel Field!
What do you see? I mean, these pieces are first of all, huge! According to a 2004 NPR interview, “trained as a microbiologist, she explores the forms and landscapes seen in a microscope lens through her giant sculptures.” So it all starts coming together, these are microscopic things, blown up after years of crouching over a microscope and entering their “world.”
Part of what I love too is how sturdy and clean they look! I love that she makes them almost, but not quite, too huge for their space, which in some ways is what things like disease can be thought of as being themselves. Kendall apparently finds diseases under the microscope beautiful, something I can ID with her at Pokate.
Many of the structures are horizontal, some hung from the ceiling, but some are also much more structural – like buildings. Nearly all can be walked around and within (basically are bigger than me!).
So, interestingly, Kendall is based in Virginia and attended Corcoran College of Art and Design in DC for her BFA and Yale for her MFA in Sculpture. I don’t know why I find it so unique that she lives in Virginia but for some reason it sets her and her creations apart in my mind. The pieces above remind me of old architectural drawing and the Eiffel Tower.
She also works in amazing colors. Her site is very beautiful but she doesn’t speak about materials too much it doesn’t seem. The tension in the fabric in the piece above suggests perhaps a soft textile or netting but I’m not sure if she uses the same material across multiple pieces.
The whole thing sort of reminds me of Ernest Neto, whose room-filling works I recall fondly.
No denying the cellular/molecular correlation here. It’s just too cool. I also wonder what the installation process is like – I really can’t tell weight of the pieces.
Tags: 3D, art from cells, cellular, inspired by nature, molecular art, sculpture
Jay Barrows
Buster, please contact me about a potential project of some large scale works that will hang
in a three story lobby of a new building .
Thanks
Jay 804 833 6847