Drawn to Fragile Fragments- Artist as Collector

New York based artist Claudia Demonte is this week's guest blogger for our Artist as Collector series.

Fragile Fragments 2, 2000-02
Foldable cutout dolls: screenprint
and archival digital print with thread
17" x 10", 27" x 12" (size varies as arms move)
©2012CeciliaMandrile
Collection of Claudia Demonte

I am particularly drawn to Cecilia Mandrile's work, and the Fragile Fragments series in particular for the way she combine content with materials. The use of the doll figure, something I have use in my own work for very different reasons, has always intrigued me. Mandrile's hand, so sensitive in all ways, uses both high tech digital process with traditional techniques. These Victorian doll inspired pieces, complete with moving parts, are both playful but painfully serious.

I love that Mandrile has figured out a way to make art while constantly on the move... moving/traveling from country to country, homeless in some ways, but strongly centered in others.... actually she is always 'home'.   Band aids covering health wounds, fragility a way of life.

There are few artists who captivate your mind's eye, without sentimentality overtaking subject matter. 

Claudia Demonte is a mixed media sculptor and installation artist, lecturer and curator whose Women of the World project brought together women artists from all over the world to come together and present a unique and collective expression of what it means to be a woman today.