JESSICA STOCKHOLDER

(AMERICAN, BORN 1959)

Flooded Chambers Maid, 2009–10
powder-coated aluminum grating, plants, paint, concrete pad, concrete footings, bleachers
dimensions variable
Loan courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Jessica Stockholder and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Constructed largely of industrial materials, Flooded Chambers Maid sits in the landscape like a stage from a wild, Alice in Wonderland-esque dream. The interactive work is a colorful amalgamation that offers viewers a multitude of experiences with the work and the green space surrounding it. By using the language of architecture, Stockholder undermines the preciousness of much art, creating a social space where viewers become living components of the piece.

Sculpture Interaction Guideline: Play With Care

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Jessica Stockholder was born in Seattle in 1959 and grew up in Vancouver. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and her M.F.A. from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1985. Stockholder is a pioneer in multimedia, genre-bending installations that have become prominent language in contemporary art. Stockholder’s complex works incorporate the architecture in which they have been conceived, blanketing the floor, scaling the walls and ceiling—even spilling out of the windows, through the doors and into the surrounding landscape. Stockholder’s installations, sculptures and collages affirm the primacy of pleasure, the blunt reality of things and the rich heterogeneity of life. Her work has been exhibited at the Dia Center for the Arts and the Whitney Museum of American Art and PS1, New York; SITE Santa Fe; the Venice Biennale; the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.