Ethel Shipton
Nominated by: TPS (Triangle Project Space)
Born: 11-2-1963
Untid States
Lives/works: United States
Statement
ETHEL SHIPTON 522 CARSON SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78208 EMAIL: eshipton@hotmail.com 210 226.9401 ARTIST’S STATEMENT In this statement, I will speak about a series of work that I have been involved with for the last few years. I have been thinking about paths, gateways, and movement in reference to travel and migration. And in my own daily routes from my home to my office and markets and daily errands, these journeys led me to look at highway systems a bit more closely. And with further inspection and research I soon discovered these modern superhighways were actually first carved out by wagon trails. These first paths, which initially served to connect communities to each other for social and economic purposes, soon created a network that has eventually become our modern highway system. These initial paths have become known as “paths of desire”. Paths which serve to connect individuals, communities, and societies in general, to basic goods and services, and eventually also lead them to even greater fortunes. Seeing these sculptures, these highways, these modern wagon trails, keep me thinking of how much our “desires” - our daily trips to Starbucks, the Gap, Barnes and Noble, although not as necessary as previous paths carved for basic necessities, continue to serve our needs. Our current needs are for luxuries, and for the immediacy of meeting these desires. Speed and motion now become a part of this equation. Motion dictates the shape of our landscape, and our landscape serves to respond to an emotional state that continues to need faster and faster movement and recognizes our destinations of desire. But, does our true destination simply lie between to points?
Recent Exhibitions (Download full CV here)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2006 Window Works, Artpace, San Antonio, TX Group Exhibitions: 2005 Stitch in Time, Women and Their Work, Austin,TX Curator Joan Davidow Blue Star 25th, Blue Star Art Space,San Antonio,TX Curator: Anthony Jones 2004 Piecework, Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX Curator: Joan Davidow 2003 Analia Segal and Ethel Shipton: Feminizing forms? Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, TX Curator: Kate Green Theo Street Project (a project in the hood), San Antonio, TX Curator: Penny Boyer Pair of Hearts: Art Where? San Antonio, TX Curator: Celia Mendoza 2002 Drawing in San Antonio, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX Curator: Lyle Williams
