Rachael Zur

Lives and works in West Linn, OR, USA

Artist statement

Traces of us linger in the physical world, even in our absence. There is an evocative nature to domestic objects and spaces—items within homes hold the residual energy of lives lived, long after people are gone. My work depicts ordinary objects from living rooms which hold the remaining radiance and tenderness of the departed. I work with materials that have visual weight to them to ground ephemeral concepts into an artwork that is physically solid. The artwork holds ideas and feelings which are light and almost impossible to contain—similar to how homes can hold an abiding echo of the departed. I fabricate irregular shaped forms, in which contour lines from the composition become the physical edge of the work. The texture and appearance of the works are ceramic-like; however the work itself is made out of plywood, plaster gauze and resin, then is painted on with acrylic paints and mediums. These works, Expanded Paintings, often include the depiction of empty chairs situated next to urns. Of these depicted objects, one holds the body in life, the other holds the body in death--emphasizing the tension between presence and absence felt in a home after a loss. Fluctuating between imagery sourced from the memory of homes belonging to those I have loved and lost, or visits made to estate sales or open houses of a stranger, these sources allow me to pay homage to domestic objects’ ability to contain the residue of a life. How homes hold the echo of a life feels similar to how an...

Artwork