Tania Alvarez

Lives and works in Catskill, NY, USA

Artist statement

I am interested in material as biography; I explore themes of impermanence, voyeurism, and home by incorporating materials from my daily life into my work, such as salvaged wallpaper and food packaging. Currently I am making paintings, sewn works on paper, and soft sculptures that are in service to the corporeal evolution of a memory — the works reveal how the more I attempt to remember something, the more that memory changes. I track those changes through compositional elements such as mirroring and patterning, and I create mementos by repeating scenes of places and experiences that have shaped my identity. For over twenty years, I have consistently returned to the image of a house as an autobiographical element in my work, attempting to discover a piece of my past self and my new self. The image of a house also creates an opportunity for viewers to relate to my experiences, even if subconsciously. By playing with the psychological effects of scale and perspective, and depicting temporal or situational changes (such as night and day, inside and outside), my work creates a feeling of disembodiment, of being in one place and yet transported elsewhere.

Artwork