Nikki Berger martinez
My work is an act of questioning that centers on the idea of beauty in the unexpected and the experience of transformation as it is coupled with death and decay.
Category: Artist/Individual
Discipline: Visual arts
Program Affiliations: Artist Roster
About Nikki Berger martinez
My sculptural work is made from found and foraged materials gathered from areas in my surroundings. I collect discarded organic and industrial waste materials and minimally arrange them to evoke a sense of growth, renewal, and emerging fullness. The objects that arise are sustainable, zero-cost and zero-waste.
My site-specific performance and community-based work utilizes the same premise while exposing the existing aesthetic potentialities in space and highlighting them with reclaimed, repurposed found object and/or ceremonial movement.
In this ritualistic pattern of recognition for the animism of matter I propose regard for the discarded, use for the useless and placemaking for the liminal. For me making art from what was not honored is to alchemize an imprisoned past into potentiality, fecundity, and freedom.
If this depth of regard can exist for the “inanimate” how might this lens of respect, care and attentiveness spill over into the ways in which we view each other and ourselves?
Nikki Berger Martinez
Preferred Pronouns: she/her
shadowandgrowth@gmail.com
https://www.shadowandgrowth.com/
The Ghost Walk series is an ongoing multi-disciplinary art piece combining site-responsive performance art, found object reclamation, costume, film and photography.
The Ghost Walk
The Ghost Walk suggests that how we relate to matter may be as important as what the matter is in and of itself. Instead of thinking “about” the material I proposes to think “from” it, evoking an invitation for interaction rather than imposing a preconceived notion of usage. The costumes for the Ghost Walk were created from found materials collected from liminal, abandoned and forgotten spaces; the stories and images that emerge from each walk embody archetype, dream, and symbolic imagery. Ultimately, each story emphasizes the vital and necessary connection not only between the animate and the inanimate, but also between presence and absence, renewal, and loss. The process of making art from discarded or otherwise dishonored or un-regarded objects is to alchemize an imprisoned past into potentiality, fecundity, and freedom.
Bottle tree seed pods and found wire
Untitled #2
This work is one of three pieces currently at the Tucson Museum of Art Biennial (April 1- Oct 1, 2023)
My sculptural work is made from found and foraged materials gathered from the areas surrounding my home in central Tucson. I collect discarded organic and industrial waste material and minimally arrange them to evoke a sense of growth, renewal and emerging fullness.
These art objects are sustainable, zero-cost and zero-waste. The majority are kinetic and multi functional able to present in several different formations making them accessible, flexible and mutable to the changing needs of their setting. The last five years of my work has centered on the idea of beauty in the unexpected and the experience of transformation as it is coupled with death and decay.
Aloe Shoot stalk (partial) and found wire
Untitled #1
This work is one of three pieces currently at the Tucson Museum of Art Biennial (April 1- Oct 1, 2023)
My sculptural work is made from found and foraged materials gathered from the areas surrounding my home in central Tucson. I collect discarded organic and industrial waste material and minimally arrange them to evoke a sense of growth, renewal and emerging fullness.
These art objects are sustainable, zero-cost and zero-waste. The majority are kinetic and multi functional able to present in several different formations making them accessible, flexible and mutable to the changing needs of their setting. The last five years of my work has centered on the idea of beauty in the unexpected and the experience of transformation as it is coupled with death and decay.
