Boston based sculptor Jenine Shereos often uses fiber and textile processes to create her intricate artworks. Her latest series uses a more unusual material – her own hair. “Leaf Series” portrays the patterned lace-like skeletons of dead leaves with excruciating detail. Shereos discusses her inspiration and process at her website: “Inspired by the delicate and detailed venation of a leaf, I began stitching individual strands of hair by hand into a water- soluble backing material. At each point where one strand of hair intersected another, I stitched a tiny knot, so that when the backing was dissolved, the entire piece was able to hold its form. Creating this work was a very meditative process for me, as I found myself lost in the detail of the small, organic microcosms that began taking shape.” Although her work is unexpected, Shereo points to an obvious correlation between human and nature through her use of unconventional materials. Her recreations of each leaf’s anatomy of smaller veins look much like capillaries in humans. The relationship between people and plants has always been profoundly important; they have provided us with breathable air, medicine, and shelter throughout history. Shereo’s leaves remind us about how integrated they are to the essence of our natural existence.
Kara Walker's recent Hyundai Commission is a 45-foot-high fountain at Tate Modern, exploring the historical tether between Africa, America and Europe with inspiration from the Victoria Memorial in London. Water, Tate says, has its own significance in the work, “referring to the transatlantic slave trade and the ambitions, fates and tragedies of people from these three continents.” The title of the work: “Fons Americanus.”