Fisher Museum Collection Spotlight: Selma Guisande
Let’s catch up with Selma Guisande, a Mexican artist whose delicate but powerful ceramic works are part of Fisher’s permanent collection.
The Artist
Selma Guisande (born 1972, Mexico City) has exhibited individually in Mexico and abroad, and collectively has exhibited in more than 50 national and international exhibitions. Her work is part of private and public collections including the USC Fisher Museum and and the Mexican Embassy in Shanghai, China. Selma has several public sculpture projects in Mexico, two in Puebla and another at the La Mesita Nature Reserve in San Pablo Etla, Oaxaca. She continues to live and work in Mexico.
The Artist at Fisher
During Fisher’s 75th anniversary year (2015), we explored the traditional values of society in “Changing Values, Changing Times.” Beginning in the Baroque age, through the breakdown of those values in the 21st century, the works in the exhibition ranged from the expression of shared values in the family portraits of the 17th century to the extreme individualism of more contemporary artworks comprising a record of human society in motion. The exhibition explored issues of gender, national and racial identity, as well as the individual alone and in society. You can read the Daily Trojan review of the exhibition here.
Selma Guisande’s works allowed viewers to explore the body as a metaphor by means of which we can place ourselves in a greater, if relatively broken, society. Her sculptures feature human and figural elements connected by fragile hemp string to create a map that speaks to our need for connection in the larger world in paradox to the desire to strike out on our own.
Selma Guisande’s themes of connection (sometimes fragile), individualism, and exploring our own place within a broken society FEEL EXTREMELY APPROPRIATE in 2020. So we reached out the artist to ask about her recent work and her process for creating art in the middle of a pandemic.
The Artist at Work Today
“How you are doing now during this pandemic? How is making art for you in this time? Does your art relate in any way to the current situation?
Since last year, I have been working on an investigation about the shadow and the collective memory, a crossroads between the historical events that shape our identity and the collective unconscious. The process consists of recovering iconic photographs of certain events resignifying them through ceramics and other materials. On the other hand, in this search for the shadow as identity, I also developed drawing exercises and automatic sculpture to enter the subconscious language more directly. In September of last year, I was doing the “Sculptures of Dawn” series, which consisted of making small plasticine sculptures every day the moment I got up. Without thinking about anything specific, I modeled the first idea or sensation that came. It is very curious to see the pieces today because many of them seemed to be small spherical coronaviruses with spikes, very surprising because the works were carried out six months before the problem exploded worldwide.
Working in ceramics within the pandemic was difficult. Even though I was in charge of a ceramic workshop and I was alone and could go every day, I found that it was not so easy to focus. However, I did the project for Instagram: @atardecerenlasala which consisted of collecting photographs (taken by others) of people in everyday life. This project has been very interesting since in some way the people who participate feel accompanied during the confinement. The project still receives photos on Instagram, the idea is to intervene in some images and make different analyzes with the collected material.
Another work that I am doing related to the current moment is the purchase of the newspaper during the month of July in the city of Cancun and in Querétaro during September in order to create one or more pieces from the events addressed by the media, to review how it affects interpersonal ties and collective culture. — Selma Guisande
During the pandemic, Fisher Museum has been keeping in touch with our audience digitally via social media and our now bi-weekly Fisher From Home newsletter. The next Fisher From Home will be sent on Wednesday, August 19th and will focus on five women artists in our permanent collection (inspired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts #5womenartists campaign). If you would like to receive this upcoming newsletter and future updates from the Fisher Museum, please subscribe using the form here.
