Elissa Levy

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work combines pre-existing objects and images as a means to explore visual representations that lend themselves to antithetical positioning. These include the contrasting yet complementary relationship between nature and culture, notions of masculinity and femininity, power and weakness, glory and shame. These objects become a part of my language open to new usages. I make photographs concurrently with my sculptural works, where I cast objects that straddle the natural and human-made world. These feature potatoes, rocks, my used Invisaligns, fishing lures, sewing trimmings (buttons and zippers) that stand in for eyes and mouths, and dazzlingly bright, faux pearls and crystals that are often sold as authentic. I have been casting these objects, but also gathering them and staging them in the landscape, where I photograph them, print out the images, and then put those back into nature and photograph them all over again, building new landscape. In the final image, these elements merge into the environment, forming an awkward space and adding a enigmatic layer of depth. Sometimes I fold the photograph, before mounting it on the birch wood and perch sculptural pieces on a ledge as if the image is spilling out into space. An uncomfortable balance between nature and culture is physically assembled with these found and sourced objects along with parts of my sculptures and prints. I treat the landscape like a body, adorning and enlivening it. In this way I reveal the symbiotic...

Artwork