Strength in Drag
Medium: formed and fabricated steel, paint
Date: 2024
Location: Buffalo Creek Arts Center, NV, USA
https://buffalocreekart.com/portfolio/vivian-beer/
Dimensions: 15' l x 45" w x 201 h
“I found myself in a conversation just days before arriving for my Buffalo Creek residency saying, “I feel like I have been putting heavy metal in drag for years now.” I carried this thought with me across the globe and into the beautiful space of the sculpture park. I wanted to react to the park in my design rather than bring one, so this realization was embedded into my experience as I walked the grounds trying to find my place in more ways than one.
My (my sculpture’s) literal place is under this amazing willow tree and just above one of the pools. I was drawn along the flow of the plantings exploring over a bridge, drawn to a green nook that was a favorite of the local deer family. It felt like a location that offered peace but also the opportunity for a stage. In my furniture I’ve always used function as a stage set for interaction, I love to invite people to interact with my pieces and to become a part of them. I designed Strength in Drag so you can meander down the hill and perhaps sit on the end of this serpentine and dramatic I-beam form that swishes into the sky and touches down into the surface of the pond in a stiletto heel.
My emotional (head/heart?) place was on the performed feminine which is central to much of my work. I think of its complex relationship to ideas of (the)masculine and strength. I question gender assumptions within life and within art in this piece especially the legacy of large scale, heavy metal sculptures. I love that transforming into drag is transforming into a superhero. That the feminine can be that superpower. Gender bending has always been essential to my journey as a metal sculptor as I imbue hard materials with soft fluid souls.
Heath Satow, a fellow artist and now fellow former resident, recommended that I should consider applying and when I reached out to Steve we realized that he had purchased one of my pieces 20 years ago, my graduate thesis piece actually, but through a gallery so we had never met. It’s an example of how small the world is, filled with connections waiting to happen. That is one of the strengths of the residency. Making in community with other artists and building together this sculpture park in a magical section of the Nevada foothills.
Thank you for hosting me and making me a part of this place in such a permanent, flamboyant and fun way and encouraging me to add a signature piece to the collection.”
– Vivian Beer
Interview as Resident: September 2024