Charlotte Richardson-Deppe
In my work, I study how webs of dependencies relate and function, and I abstract them, portraying connective or destructive attachments via sculpture, installation, video, photo, and performance. I explore the joints and disjoints intrinsic to relying, depending, and caring for oneself and others in the world. I am a queer woman who experiences chronic pain. These identities inform my practice, in which I highlight non-normative instances of dependencies. Dominant cultures and systems of whiteness, capitalism, and cis-hetero-patriarchy deny and devalue care work and dependency in a neverending pursuit of exhausting individualism and competitive isolation. To be queer and to experience chronic pain makes necessary an ability to fabricate alternative systems of care to depend on when the dominant culture fails at providing safety and care for all. I posit that independence is impossible—one always relies on someone or something. What do you rely on that allows you to thrive? On whom do you wish you did not have to depend? What about moments of a false reliance, a poisoned dependency? My work takes these webs of connections—both nurturing reliances and painful ones—and translates them into an abstract plane. My experience in dance and aerial arts imparts physicality and a preoccupation with interaction between bodies and sculptures into my work. Most recently, I have been using soft sculpture to translate angular interlocking forms onto a pliable medium. These soft sculptures make space for touch, rest, and care in this time of isolation imposed by a global pandemic.
About the artist:
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe is an interdisciplinary artist from St. Paul, Minnesota. Growing up, she performed in musical theater and opera as well as training in circus arts at Circus Juventas, where she excelled in aerial arts. Her artistic focus expanded towards studio art while studying at Grinnell College, where she became enamored with sculpture, performance art, and installation while continuing to train in dance, theater, and vocal music. She graduated from Grinnell College in 2019 with a double major in Studio Art and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and she is currently a first-year MFA candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Object at rest
2020
Cotton, polyester, polyfil, foam mattress, thread.
24 x 38.5 x 34.5 inches
At rest with object
2020
Cotton, polyester, polyfil, foam mattress, thread.
24 x 38.5 x 34.5 inches
Holding, interlocking
2020
Cotton, polyfil, thread.
15 x 6 x 5 inches