24″x30″; collage; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Phyllis Famiglietti: Childhood Dreams
at Upstream Gallery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA
6-30 October 2022
Phyllis Famiglietti says about this work:
I find magic in found objects…they contain a certain type of energy from a previous life.
Old books and magazines, instruction manuals, and comics, detritus picked-up off the streets and discovered in flea markets. Wires, springs, hinges, switches, homeless pieces that once belonged to something or someone, somewhere at sometime, have filled many of my drawers and cabinets for years.
Recently, I went through a powerful time where fears and emotions, once buried in a framework of childhood dreams, revealed themselves. Once these feelings surfaced, I found myself driven to create, transposing cherished objects…disjointed dolls, porcelain figurines, skates and circuit boards, little plastic animals and old broken toys…into characters, stories and scenes.
10″x17.5″x2.5″; assemblage; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
While creating these pieces, I allow the objects to guide me in an exploration of form, color, balance and story. I have no preconceived notions of character or narrative and am open to all possibilities. Usually I’m surprised at where the process takes me, but can immediately recognize an intimate connection to the past, or a lingering fear of the future. And unaware of any conscious motivation, the work transitions from the personal to the political (and sometimes back again), as each object reveals a silent history held mute at its core.
And I leave it up to you…the viewer…to draw your own conclusions. To allow the objects and their interactions to lead you through corridors of personal meaning and history. To undertake your own experience with magic.
(text adapted from materials provided by the artist)
INFORMATION
Upstream Gallery
8 Main Street
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706 USA
(914) 674-8548
Hours:
Thursday, Friday & Sunday, 12:30-5:30PM
Saturday, 10AM-5:30PM