Excerpts from a text by Ann Lauterbach for an upcoming catalog on Nancy Shaver
We, Nancy and I, share a love of necessary objects; objects that were made of necessity, in need.
With a purpose in mind.
With, sometimes, limited material means.
We believe, also, that art is necessary.
The necessity of art is somehow implicated in the relationship between materials and purpose.
There is a fine line between purpose and use.
Nancy and I share a pleasure in these fine lines.
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Worn objects are the material equivalent of wise. This thought has been with me since the first flea market.
It has nothing to do with the frippery of antiques, nothing to do with the advancement of investment, nothing to do with Roadshow inheritance.
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Well if nothing else, art has given me a way to live, she said one day as I was leaving Henry's inventory of foundlings.
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A Minimalist instruction: material and process revelatory of each other. Making as content.
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A tender, humorous delight in things as they are.
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Nancy as alchemist of this inception.
The new as/is insight.
1.03.02
Why not use new materials?
From an early age, 4-5-6, I experienced the desire and disappointment of the "new." The doll dressed in Kleenex and string transcended its material - to beauty and grace, visual, sensual. Used candy papers became wealth. The pleasure of the something/ nothing contradiction of art drives me.
Would you comment on your long standing interest to compound abstraction and meaning with decoration?
In one corner of my mind I long to be a minimalist - BUT my love of complications - and sense of overlap, space between things, a visual avidity, a visual equality - everything plus the kitchen sink is my process and my product.
Have you set up your art making against a number of frowned upon ideas -like surface painted abstract sculpture, the used, decorativeness, small ... ?
Yes. Both consciously and unconsciously, and as a practical, personal use of art history.
Are you purposefully slyly feminist?
No. I am working from an acceptance of the feminine - more like the independence and dependence of the farmer on his land. I am quietly, independently feminist.
How was Walker Evans a big influence on your work? Will you point to a few other artists you find inspiring?
Walker Evans gave me the permission to go after and root out the beauty and comfort in the ordinary. Hiroshige, Atget, Jane Austen, William Carlos Williams, Gerhard Richter