frances bagley in conversation

with executive director peter doroshenko

What has been the focus of your recent studio work and why?

My recent work (as of the last couple of years) has involved my continued interest in the human form but now I am adding structural elements in dialogue with the forms. I have addressed both of these concerns in my work since I began as an artist, but I have only recently begun to focus on combining three dimensional organic form with structures. 

I am interested in how a reference to architecture offers context to a form or an installation.

Many new works have a youthful and post-conceptual look and feel, is this tied into your current thoughts and interests?  

Concept and content are strong forces in my work however the choice of materials and the aesthetics of each work are part of how the message is conveyed. As a sculptor I cannot separate what and how the art is made from what it is saying. They are one in the same.  Funny you referred to my work as having a youthful look and feel although I have been making art for well over 40 years. I know that my practice is always reflecting the sensibilities of my generation, however I am very aware of and interested in the evolution of art in relation to its time.

Scale and largess are also ingrained into some recent key works, is this because your large studio allows for you to go big? 

Actually, it is the opposite, I have a large studio because I need to work big.

What scale can do as a sculptural element continually fascinates me. Since sculpture occupies the same space as the human, I am interested in how the viewer feels the art in relation to their own physicality.

I also like to combine scale relationships in one work causing the viewer to adjust their perceptions in one experience.  Heroic scale and miniature scale evoke a similar perceptual response. It is the same as an architectural model allowing the brain to understand something as large as a building. It is the scale in between that becomes an object.

What have you been reading and how does that reflect on your current thinking?

I am currently reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I think I chose it because I was looking for comfort in this anxiety ridden time. It is not that it is a book meant to comfort, but it does so for me.  I am a product of the South even though my parents were not. They met at the University of Michigan but raised my brother and me on a farm in Tennessee. Growing up in that southern environment is embedded in me.  The rhythms and mysteries of Southern story telling come out in my work beyond my control.