Studios > Anonda Bell
Anonda Bell
"I am interested in the idea of knowledge and in particular how relative it can be to the time and circumstances in which it was generated. I am fascinated in the conflation of objective and subjective information as a way of developing systems for understanding archetypes, a way to develop systems to identify what ‘normal’ in any given set of circumstances. My recent practice has been concerned with the interaction of science and art. Trained as a painter and printmaker, I now focus primarily on paper based practice. I create large format installations using many media - acrylic, oil, watercolor, enamel, glass, felt and fabric. I am interested particularly in the ephemeral nature of my work. It is pinned or nailed to the wall, and can be reconstituted in many different ways.
Using a quasi-scientific approach, I would like to work on a project to investigate the hidden, elusive and frequently culturally derived meanings for people, places and things. I suspect that my project will not aim to result in concrete conclusions, but rather to confirm the impossibility of ever really knowing anything. In particular I am interested in investigating the phenomenon of natural history. The study of the natural world was an obsession for both scientists and lay people in the 1800s. After the release of Darwin’s Origin of the Species in 1859, arguments raged either way that the process of evolution was evidenced in natural specimens. At the time, natural history represented a way of colonizing foreign lands. This occurred though rigorous and ‘scientific’ documentation (with the implication of objective, rational, impartial mannerisms) of specimens that were specific to certain places. The burgeoning scientific world and specifically studies of physiognomy, neuroscience, biology, created domains for the classification of people by new means, their physical existence became a way to view their inevitable temperament. Through these means a person could be characterized as a weak character through their physique, morally lacking through the shape of their nose, or prone to monthly insanity through their possession of a uterus."
Anonda will use her time as an Aferro resident to create a large wall based installation that evokes a sense of chaos rather than order, utilizing essential discourses particular to visual and written natural history propaganda to demonstrate the utter confusion rather than clarity that results from conflicting scientific and social discourses.
