is an artist from Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
For the Personal Histories exhibition Irmari has created two small accordion books:
Books: 105 Hair Today
This 4" book chronicles (in photographs) a year of growing my hair - from 2" at the shortest to 11" a year later."
Elements
"This 4", 40 page accordion book is a personal history of how I made (and my motivation for) a sculptural work in the round of 4 encyclopedia britannicas comprising the elements: fire, water, air, and earth."
Irmari has made artist books throughout the years, but in 2007 she began working steadily on a recycled book series - "Saved". This series utilises books that otherwise might be discarded and transforms them into artworks.
The books are cut, sometimes into slivers which curl and undulate and return to the tree-like shape from which the paper was made. Lately, the books have exploded from their spines.
A 4" book has grown to 24" through a series of cuts and spirals reaching out to the viewer with subliminal messages. The words on the pages of the books are sliced, slivered or torn and become interwoven with other slivers and slices to make the original meaning no longer clear, but the words are still there - creating new information, now obtained by reading only the letters that are visually available. Or, as the words of the book extend beyond the surface of the covers, by means of the outreaching slivers, the ideas and concepts of the book move out to the viewer, perhaps generating new ideas. The reality of the book is questioned: is it no longer a book, or is it a container for concepts? Is it now a sculpture? Must a book have pages and words, has it changed the basic integrity of a book and become an art object capable of many interpretations? Does it now please the aesthetic senses as well as the intellectual senses?
This artwork, using the book as a metaphor, addresses environmental concerns, change and transformation, information received and denied, altered reality, as well as the concept of multiple imagery, which highlights the strength and energy of repeated elements.
Irmari's art has been exhibited in every major museum in New Jersey, including the Newark Museum, NJ State Museum, and Montclair Art Museum. Her work is also in several corporate and public collections including AT&T, PSE&G, ADP, Newark Museum, International Museum of Collage, Mexico, Rutgers University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Bowdoin College, Jimmy Carter Museum and Yale Art Museum.
She has exhibited internationally, as well as nationally, and received two New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Sculpture. She received a second Puffin Foundation Grant for "Who Am I?", an interactive project where the viewer becomes part of the artwork.
These bookworks are in several collections and have been recently been shown at the Belskie Museum,NJ,
Lichtenstein Center for the Arts,MA,Doverodde BookArts Festival,Denmark, Westport Library, Conn,NJ State Museum,Newark Museum,WAH Centre, NY, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, ME,Univ of Northampton, UK, Wiener Library, London, UK, and in solo shows at the Atrium Gallery, Bard College at Simon's Rock, MA and the Intermezzo Gallery, BergenPAC, NJ.
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTIST - IRMARI NACHT
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