CHRIS NITSCHE
ARTIST STATEMENT ABOUT AWAY:
“When you throw something away, what does away mean?”
-Jenny Holzer
The installation “Away,” for the Making Waves exhibition is a built frame outlining a ship hull, located among the maple trees at the museum. Suspended throughout the interior of the hull is only six hours of collected river detritus; all from local shores and hammocks of rivers, creeks, and marshes. It is what Nitsche considers to be an awful visual manifestation of what floats through our waterways, suspended as cargo in this ship.
Additional art can be seen at his website www.chrisnitsche.com and chrisnitscheblog@wordpress.com
Header Image:
Concept Drawing: Gestalt
2016-2017
Repurposed Lumber
Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, Savannah, GA
Away, 2018
CHRISTOPHER NITSCHE explores memory, passages, and transitional states – all through installations, sculptures and drawings of metaphorical ships. For over 20-year his focus on ship forms harken to vessels found in cultures throughout the world, in particular spiritual and ceremonial crafts. The diverse meanings and uses for ships drive the wide-ranging ways he produces his art. Additional inspirations are the found objects he chooses for making art, where the enduring histories of personal associations remain present.
Christopher Nitsche is a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. His exhibition record includes solo and group shows in galleries, museums, and art centers nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions have been at the Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah, the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, Florida, the Spartanburg Art Museum, and the Indigo Sky Community Gallery. Sculptures have been juried into shows at the Huntsville Museum of Art and the Alexandria
Museum of Art. He is planning solo shows for the Alexander Brest Museum and Gallery in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Mobile Art Museum. He contributes to the community by giving artist talks, and through appointments as a visiting artist. His research and art have been acknowledged through numerous academic grants, honorariums and two state art council awards for artistic merit.
PIECE FOR MAKING WAVES
Away, 2018
25' x 8' x 6'
Lumber, Wire, Found River Detritus