ELAINE BUSS
AUGUST 4 - 25, 2023
Main Gallery
Artist Statement
To create my forms, I decontextualize historical utilitarian objects. My references include ancient grinding stones, water pipes, vertical loom weights, arches, and building fragments, among others. Anthropological sources provide a place of empathy with past humans and a way to understand my own humanity more thoroughly. I choose sources that reveal direct logic, touch, or process and then use the same visual language in my own forms. The resulting sculptures are not meant to allude to any specific origin or culture, but rather remain anonymous and elusive.
Sacred spaces are integral to my research. I seek sublime effect, sometimes through balance and harmony, sometimes through materiality. It is important to note that by “sublime”, I am referencing that moment of capture when one concedes their presence to being enraptured in an experience. Sacred spaces are constructed with proportions, details, shapes, and attention to light in a way that resonates with a similar experience for many.
Floating between particular objects and ambiguously referential forms, I embrace the nondescript. This otherness feels indiscernible; I am fascinated by the space between knowing and searching. I find mystery to be one of the most compelling emotions, and I try to arrive at a sense instead of a certainty in my work. It is humbling to be reminded that there is still so much beyond our empirical grasp. The ambiguous forms that I create relate to my own ineffable experience as a human; they remind me that it’s ok to exist in the space of the indeterminate.
Artist BIO
Elaine Buss grew up in the wide-open prairie fields of Lively Grove, Illinois. Her work explores ambiguity and the nondescript, specifically in relation to the sensory, ineffable, and intangible experience of inhabiting a human body. She earned an MFA from Ohio State University (2018) and a BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2010). Her work has garnered multiple awards including an Inspiration Grant (ArtsKC), Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award, The International Award for Visual and Performing Arts (Ohio State), and an ArtistInc Fellowship (Mid-America Arts Alliance). Elaine’s work is held in collections such as Honos Art (Italy), Belger Collection (Missouri), Baggs Library (Ohio), Potamkin Collection (Florida) and C.R.E.T.A.Rome (Italy). Elaine is an Assistant Professor at Kansas City Art Institute in the Foundation Department and a 2022-2024 Charlotte Street Foundation Arts Resident.