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Michelle Wilson

"Body Maps Triptych"

"Carry Memory"

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Artist profile

Michelle Wilson is a printmaker, papermaker, book and installation artist whose work has been featured in exhibitions at the Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, the Landmarks Contemporary Projects series in Philadelphia, and the 2006 International Biennial for th eARtist's Book in Alexandria, Egypt. Her work is in numerous collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, the Jaffe Center for Book Arts in Boca Raton, FL, and the Philadelphia Free Library Print and Picture Collection. She is the current Artist-in-Residence at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in Elmer, NJ, and a 2008 recipient of a grant from the Puffin Foundation. Wilson has an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts, and a BFA in Two-Dimensional Fine Art from Moore College of Art and Design.

Artist's statement

This work is part of an ongoing investigation in which I am explloring the intersection of bodies and place. Based on a series of photographs taken of maps projected onto my own body, I am examining how being in a location becomes a physical part of our bodies: we eat its food, breathe its air, and drink its water. And yet, when we depart, how do we carry this place with us? What sort of body-memory of place and spatial orientation exists within us? Do our sense-memories ever become cross-wired?

Using light-sensitive processes (photography and photopolymer), and thermochromatic fabric, I have created the 'Shroud' series. In this series, I invite viewers to touch or breathe onto 'Shrouds'. Upon touching, the fabric will be transformed, making obscured details visible. Those who touch allow their body-memory to intersect mine. To touch, in this case, is to see.

Web links

Rocinante Press

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