|
Virtual Artist Talk with Krystal DiFronzo
|
In You were born good at make die, DiFronzo explores acts of violence, nurture, and decay. In this body of work they use the role of the hunter to illustrate the dualities that occur in taking an animal’s life.
Through natural dye paintings on silk panels, dead dough sculptures, patchwork compositions, and works on paper they continue to analyze the impacts of fraternal generational trauma. DiFronzo looks to the woods and the structure of the grotto as sites of pause to be sought out or constructed. Along with the hunter/huntress the a cast of characters includes hounds, the vulture, and the deer seen both alive, ill, dead, and desiccated.
For this exhibition, DiFronzo draws inspiration from their recent residency experience in the surrounding Pittsburgh landscape as well as how that landscape is reflected in the 1978 film, The Deerhunter as a physical and ideological intermediary.
They have held solo exhibitions at Hume, Chicago; Ballroom Projects, Chicago; and Dirt Palace in Providence, RI. Their work has been shown in group exhibitions at Western Exhibitions, Chicago; Field Projects, New York; and and digitally through The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program and Perrotin Gallery. They have been an artist in residence at The Atlantic Center for the Arts and at Lafayette College’s Experimental Printmaking Institute and are currently in residence at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA as part of their Craft Fellowship program. In Summer 2022, they will exhibit a solo exhibition at Wavehill in the Bronx, NY as part of their Sunroom Project Space and participate in a two-person exhibition at Kingfish Gallery in Buffalo, NY.
Artist Statement
In You were born good at make die., DiFronzo explores acts of violence, nurture, and decay through patchwork compositions, natural dye paintings on silk panels, dead dough sculptures, and works on paper. This exhibition is a continued analysis of the impacts of paternal generational trauma, the methods accepted through patriarchy that men find to cope, and how the artist sees the weight of it all reflected in their own actions as well as its impact on women in their life. DiFronzo uses the surrounding landscape of Pittsburgh as experienced in person during their residency at Bunker Projects and as well as in the 1978 film, The Deerhunter, as a physical and ideological intermediary. In this body of work they use the role of the hunter to illustrate the dualities that occur in taking an animal’s life. There is the intense psychic release Robert De Niro’s character from The Deerhunter finds in stalking and gunning down an elk in one shot. Then there is the figure of the huntress Diana/Artemis, who not only hunts game with her bow and hounds but also serves as a protector in the form of a fertility deity. DiFronzo looks to the woods and the structure of the grotto as sites of pause to be sought out or constructed. Along with the hunter and hounds, the cast includes the vulture and coyote as custodian, caring for its young through the consumption of carrion. There is then the carrion itself: the deer seen both alive, ill, dead, and desiccated. A loving tribute to what is seen pasted on freeways. Its last visual memory is a pair of shining orbs, sun dogs hiding steel. It’s still eyes facing the sun or moon those headlights mimic.
In You were born good at make die., DiFronzo explores acts of violence, nurture, and decay through patchwork compositions, natural dye paintings on silk panels, dead dough sculptures, and works on paper. This exhibition is a continued analysis of the impacts of paternal generational trauma, the methods accepted through patriarchy that men find to cope, and how the artist sees the weight of it all reflected in their own actions as well as its impact on women in their life. DiFronzo uses the surrounding landscape of Pittsburgh as experienced in person during their residency at Bunker Projects and as well as in the 1978 film, The Deerhunter, as a physical and ideological intermediary. In this body of work they use the role of the hunter to illustrate the dualities that occur in taking an animal’s life. There is the intense psychic release Robert De Niro’s character from The Deerhunter finds in stalking and gunning down an elk in one shot. Then there is the figure of the huntress Diana/Artemis, who not only hunts game with her bow and hounds but also serves as a protector in the form of a fertility deity. DiFronzo looks to the woods and the structure of the grotto as sites of pause to be sought out or constructed. Along with the hunter and hounds, the cast includes the vulture and coyote as custodian, caring for its young through the consumption of carrion. There is then the carrion itself: the deer seen both alive, ill, dead, and desiccated. A loving tribute to what is seen pasted on freeways. Its last visual memory is a pair of shining orbs, sun dogs hiding steel. It’s still eyes facing the sun or moon those headlights mimic.
So come and join the feast, 2022 natural dyes (tea, madder root, turmeric, osage orange
pomegranate, and iron) and resist on three silk gauze panels
Last Gasp (Grotto for Diana), 2022
natural dyes (tea, madder root, pomegranate) and resist on silk, screenprint on bloodroot dyed cotton, embroidery floss, ribbon, felt, slate
No one could pull her off the road, 2022, natural dyes (osage orange, pomegranate and iron) and resist on silk, felt, found fabric, bleach, embroidery floss, ribbon
NO ONE COULD PULL HER OFF THE ROAD, 2022
|
The vultures always want to eat, 2022
resist on pomegranate dyed silk, found fabrics, ribbon
|
Flanked by Hounds (Grotto for Artemis) 2022, natural dyes (turmeric and pomegranate) and resist on silk, glass beads
Locked Horns, 2022, dead dough and branch
|
Marrow Altar, 2022, dead dough, local grasses and thistles
One Shot (#2, #3, #4), 2022, charcoal and pomegranate on paper
Her stillest eyes, they still look bright, 2022, natural dyes (osage orange, madder root, pomegranate, turmeric) and resist on silk, found fabric, bleach, embroidery floss, ribbon
|
One Shot (#1), 2022, charcoal and pomegranate dye on paper
Shed, 2022, dead dough and branches
| you_were_born_good_price_list__3_.pdf |
