{"id":21281,"date":"2025-04-02T15:55:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/?page_id=21281"},"modified":"2025-04-02T15:55:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:55:20","slug":"lila-schaefer-artist-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/lila-schaefer-artist-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Lila Schaefer Artist Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2025\/04\/LilaSchaefer_StatementRecording.m4a\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This body of work, consisting of sculptures and watercolors, blends soft-edged, anthropomorphic shapes with hard-edged, geometric forms to explore the relationship between physical and non-physical realms\u2014the body\u2019s internal world and its external environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sculptures are crafted from layers of wood, aluminum wire, polyfill stuffing, fabric, and knit or crocheted textiles. The combination of these materials mimics human anatomy, embedding the body\u2019s interior within a non-living design object. I begin each sculpture by creating the \u201cskin\u201d through sewing, knitting, or crocheting. This colorful, tactile surface contrasts with the more muted tones of wood and metal. The &#8220;skin&#8221; acts as a crucial boundary, symbolizing the interface between the internal self and the outside world. The watercolor paintings, inspired by the intuitive approach of Hilma af Klint, serve as a counterpoint to the sculptures and allow me to be guided by intuition, unbounded by the constraints of physical 3-D fabrication. The two-dimensional compositions reflect the same geometries present in the three-dimensional forms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The materials I use reflect my interest in merging soft, handmade elements with more functional aspects of design. This fusion evolves into an investigation of how physical spaces\u2014both inside and outside the body\u2014impact one another. I draw from the works and philosophies of artists like Louise Bourgeois, Erwin Wurm, Joan Mir\u00f3, and Cy Twombly, whose explorations of the subconscious, body, and space inform my practice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The installation of these sculptures, arranged as an abstracted living room, underscores the importance of the body\u2019s interaction with these recognizable forms within the space. The organic, playful qualities of these pieces resist the idealized perfection of contemporary design. These sculptures challenge the pursuit of efficiency and control in our built environments, advocating instead for a more open, unpredictable approach to human experience\u2014one that embraces the messiness of life and the emotional complexity inherent in our relationship to the spaces around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This body of work, consisting of sculptures and watercolors, blends soft-edged, anthropomorphic&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1626,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-21281","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21282,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21281\/revisions\/21282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}