Rosalyn Driscoll- Tactile Artist

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: 

"My work explores the feeling of living in the body, which is subject to natural elements, forces and processes such as light, water, growth, decay, loss and gravity. My sculptures, installations and photographs speak to the bodily senses of proprioception, kinesthesia and touch. Body, self, nature, and art form a seamless continuum. The meanings and qualities of materials, whether manufactured, handmade or organic, are central to my work. Moving images and light are integrated into the structure and meaning of some work, further animating and transforming matter."


MARRIAGE, 2015,rawhide, photographic foil,copper tubing, 13"by30"by17"


BiographyDriscoll began making art full-time following a major in art history at Smith College, then two years as curatorial assistant in the Asian department of the Yale University Art Gallery, followed by a year of study at Silvermine College of Art in Connecticut. Her early work in painting and drawing focused on the human body–merging the visible surface and underlying anatomical structures. She turned to hand-papermaking, initially working with Dieu Donne Paper and Press in New York, to make abstract handmade paper collages with texture and physical presence, using papers stained by submersion in a bog.
Interest in the body and presence led to sculptures that invited people to touch and that investigated touch as a way of knowing. She designed these works to be accessible for people with visual disabilities, yet found that touching could enrich everyone’s aesthetic experience. These early sculptures were small, architectonic and made of durable materials like wood, stone, steel and rope.
During a residency in Taos, New Mexico, at Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, she discovered rawhide, a material that allowed her to generate organic forms with physical and formal allusions to the body. These sculptures no longer invite actual touch, but evoke somatic, visceral feelings such as balance, pressure, motion and emotion. The translucence of rawhide led to integrating light into the sculptures, including neon and video. She collaborates with filmmakers in the US and the UK, projecting moving images onto the translucent rawhide sculptures, transforming both sculptures and images.
She continues to make sculptures as well as site-responsive installations, both indoors and outdoors. Her newest work explores water, and includes a collaboration with Springs Stewardship Institute in Arizona to bring attention to the biological, cultural importance of springs.
Driscoll is a member of Sensory Sites, an international collective based in London that generates exhibitions, installations and research that explore multi-sensory perception.
http://rosalyndriscoll.com/