Carrie Scanga

Cottekill, NY
Residency: May-June 2005

"I spent my two months at Sculpture Space working through the beginning phase of an entirely new project–what I think is the second real body of work I have made in my artistic career thus far. I began construction on three new pieces of work that will fit together in one large installation project. The installation will involve knee-high and 8' tall papier mache trees that form forests around charcoal drawings of girls. A decorative border of paper flowers will surround the girls and cover the trees and the walls of the gallery. Beginning this project involved a lot of research, so I read books of fairytales and theories about fairytales, history and folktales about forests, young adult fiction, and books about botany (–all found at Utica's library.) I will be forever grateful to Sculpture Space for granting me the time and freedom to work through a new project–something I could not have done while working a day job or while emphasizing productivity in my studio for the demands of my art career. "
— Carrie Scanga

Carrie Scanga grew up in rural, suburban, and urban locations in Pennsylvania, and her work has long been concerned with the spatial and architectural aspects of these environments. She is interested in how spatial layouts and the physical presence of human-built places serve as metaphors for human desire as well as the ways that they directly impact individuals and societies. Carrie received her training from Bryn Mawr College and from the University of Washington. She has been a resident at The MacDowell Colony and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and in 2004 she received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She has recently exhibited her work at El Conteiner Gallery in Quito, Ecuador, the International Print Center New York, and the Islip Art Museum on Long Island. Artist Statement: I employ buildings as a subject for art because they are obvious and accessible manifestations of our physical world. They affirm the materiality of our bodies with their presence, by defining our interior spaces and exterior horizons and by sheltering us. By floating, flattening, fragmenting, and otherwise distorting my perceptions of architecture, I blur the line between the internal, spiritual world and the material, corporeal world.