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Vanessa German
Artwork Descriptionthis power figure was made with objects,(read: trash and stuff) that i picked up at the park across from my house, where every Saturday there is the most amazing community ritual that takes place from morning light to the going down of day: the midget football game. when the midget football games are over for the week, i get to scooping up all of the trash from the play ground and 4 square field. i also saved as much of my own trash for an entire week, which was interesting to try, rising cups and saving wrappers, and recycling EVERYTHING, ie: bones, tea bags, the last water bottles that i will EVER purchase to drink out of. i even got to saving other people's throw aways...,"hey, are you gonna throw that away...cuz i could, you know, use that to make a power figure...yeah... don't worry, it's good hoodoo."
Artist Statement
we must create a new story in and of our present world, a story that includes the collective soul of all living beings, earth, sky, water, cosmos, and us. a story that speaks to the ceremony and ritual of being, healing, grieving, transcending and continuing on in harmony. we will write this new story by imagining it, creating it, naming the tools, the time, the characters and the sights and sounds, the wants, needs and reasons. we will write this new story with new hearts and undone eyes; turning around and examining, loving and forgiving, healing and believing. Regenerative Power is an active power figure, it lives and carries on in this space, it is a part of (my) the artist's new used and recycled story.
Bio
Vanessa German is a performance and visual artist currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. Her mixed media sculptural works gather inspiration from the Kongo "Nkisi" power figures, Mexican iconography, and the many potent, tragic, and stark realities of present day life. Seeking to create work that evokes not only the visceral emotional response of spirit and memory, Vanessa's work also seeks to create a visual contemporary ritual iconography relevant to the realities of the modern world; to employ objects with the power to invoke. Recent exhibitions include "Celebration of Visual Traditions", touring PA through 2008; "Migrations" at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; "In Our House", at 937 Liberty Avenue. "Objectification" at Gallerie Chiz, "Nappy Headed Hoe's" at The Clay Penn. "Art for August" with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
German has shown and performed throughout the country. A featured performer at the International Arts Festival in Grahmstown, South Africa, Vanessa's performance poetry could be seen and heard in Germany, Sweden, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Olympia, and New Mexico.
Vanessa was a 2005 and 2006 nominee for Emerging Artist of the Year at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. She is the National Slam Bush Champion, Ink Tank Slam Champion, and was voted Best Spoken-word Poet by the Pittsburgh City Paper. Other performance credits include August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson", "Seven Guitars", and Jo Turner's Come and Gone"; "Fire", her performance project with the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and this spring's Kuntu Repertory Theater production of "Relativity". She is the recent winner of the Dusquesne Light African American Leadership award for contributions to the arts and culture. You can see her performing in, "rise" a multi-disciplinary spoken word and theater performance presented as part of the August Wilson Center's first Arts Festival. Vanessa will be a featured performer at this year's POP!Tech, culture and technology conference in Camden,Maine.
