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Christine SP - artist photo Carolyn Thow.jpg

Christine Sauerteig-Pilaar

OPENING 

 

Saturday Afternoon, October 26th, 3:00 – 4:30pm

Unveiling artist Christine Sauerteig-Pilaar outdoor installation UNTITLED!

 

Meeting point the Galleries of Whittemore for local cider & homemade donuts.

At 3:15pm sharp we will walk as a group led by Christine, to view her large-scale pieces in the woods of WhittemoreCCC.

Artist Statement

About a year ago, as the fall leaves turned, I was inspired to create a pop-up show in the woods. The palette of my ongoing body of work seemed to naturally belong in the autumn landscape. I imagined setting up the pieces in a nearby clearing and sharing a digital map for visitors to find the show. However, my then 18-year-old daughter, always the pragmatist, reminded me that it would be trespassing on Watershed property, with only hikers, quad riders, and bears as my audience. She urged me to find a more appropriate location, which led me to Whittemore, a space where nature and art intersect perfectly. Through Whittemore’s mission, I expanded my original concept. I decided to shift my focus and create a theme for this pop-up show that was different from my usual body of work. I wanted to address our role as custodians of the environment. Climate change has long been a topic of advocacy, but the ongoing destruction of nature, driven by both ignorance and arrogance, inspired me to communicate the urgency of this issue through my work.I turned to sign language, which allows the voiceless to speak. The gestures I depict—three phases of the one hand: open, thumb crossed over the palm, and finally the fist, is the three step gesture for people out in the public space that need to communicate they are in dire need of rescue and help.The two hands together with the flat hand under the top fist, is the sign language gesture for “Help”. The gestured one in action is arising up motion, signifying one helping another rise up. I used reflective and brightly colored thread to catch attention, much like nature’s warning signals. The materials I use, recycled sewing pattern paper, are delicate and disintegrate easily. This fragility adds another layer to the work: as the pieces deteriorate in nature, so too does the message. Our culture’s fleeting attention often forgets critical issues once they fade from the spotlight. The disappearance of my work mirror show easily we let important causes slip away.

 

Artist Bio:

Christine Sauerteig-Pilaar is a contemporary artist living and working in New Jersey. Her compelling and emotional artworks look to speak to the primitive side of the human existence and how that relates to modern day life. Sauerteig-Pilaar focuses on the female form as her muse, mostly conjured from self-portraits, where she utilizes her body to manipulate feelings of a quiet rage within women in the more domestic interiors of lives not usually viewed as remarkable or unique. She works to search out the uniting thread of feminism in the dark spaces of suburban life, and looks to thrust the spotlight on the unsaid struggles and betrayals of women in our current society. Sauerteig-Pilaar received her BFA from Parson’s School of Design in 1993, and after living in New York City, relocated to New Jersey where she has continuously experimented with mediums that led to the eclectic mixed media paper constructions she is most notably recognized for. Her work has been showcased and celebrated in galleries and museums across the country. She was awarded the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation residency in Jersey City, NJ in 2022.

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