Babula
Charlotte briskin
“Babula represents the sensed but unseen border between the material world and the spiritual world.”
— Charlotte Briskin
ABOUT
Artist statement
Babula is a deconstructed and reimagined veil that floats down from the ceiling, breathes in the wind, and dances in the light. This illuminated tunnel provides a safe passageway between this world and the next. Babula represents the sensed but unseen border between the material world and the spiritual world. It is constructed with chiffon fabric that has been torn apart and embroidered back together with thick stitches.
As you walk through, gently touch the fabric, and interact with the space - your presence creates a unique and temporary pattern of light and shadow. Babula visualizes and vivifies our intimate yet invisible relationship with the spiritual world. Babula is an endearing Yiddish term for grandmother.
Artist Process
“I am named after my mom’s mom, Charlotte who was a painter, textile artist, and printmaker. Although I never got to meet her, I feel like we have been actively communicating and collaborating through the process of making art. Engaging in the same physical labor that my grandmother experienced when printmaking in the 1960’s allows me to time travel, learn about the little moments in her life and continue her legacy of artmaking through my own processes
Despite never meeting my namesake, we have been able to develop a relationship across time through the process of making art. I have been guided by an ancestral current to expand and transform the body of work my grandmother left behind after her death in the same year I was born. Babula visualizes and vivifies the intimate yet invisible relationship I have developed with my grandmother Charlotte through material exploration.
My grandmother made many of her own scarves, working with textiles in exclusively functional ways. I have been guided by my grandmother to continue her work by creating both unfunctional and dysfunctional textile artwork. Babula represents the presence of a protective spirit and the sensed but unseen border between the material world and the spiritual world.”
- Charlotte Briskin
“Charlotte Briskin works with the most ephemeral of materials in order to connect herself physically, emotionally and sensorily to her own history and memory, and specifically, in this work, to the life and work of her grandmother, who was also an artist. The sutured chiffon becomes a corporeal entity which we are invited to inhabit, touch and fully immerse ourselves within.”
- Adam Brooks, Professor, Art and Design Department
Meet the artist:
CHarlotte Briskin
Charlotte Briskin (she/they) is a sculptor and papermaker from Pennsylvania living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Charlotte uses a variety of interactive sculptural materials such as handmade paper, textiles, metal, found objects, and what other people call trash. Through material exploration she expresses the similarities between our human bodies and the natural world. Her work visualizes the synchronicities of life from microscopic levels to astronomical sizes.
Official Website: https://charlottebriskin.myportfolio.com/
