Where it is and where it all began.....
About Rochelle, aka Repurpose Me:
I currently work and live in South Hyde Park, Kansas City, where I pursue many practices of art in my studio/ living space....while working slowly but surely towards a BFA in fiber and sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Before finally deciding to pursue my passions amongst multi art disciplines, I worked as a hair stylist for 13 years where I took advantage of many opportunities to explore and break the monotony of salon work and participate as a hair artist in hair & fashion shows within the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area.
These experiences were inspirational to my more recent explorations in textiles, sculpture, and performance; taking me into a realm of experimenting with techniques and materials- originally with heat fusing recycled plastic bags into a durable material, which is not only expressed into my mixed-media work but also used to create functional items such as purses, bags, and wallets.
Heavily entranced by all ideas of sustainability, recycling and repurposing, my Repurpose Me shop is endorsed with these ideas, in which I sell wares created from treasure trash/ repurposed materials for a "throw away" society. Not limited to my own handmade though, you'll also find antiques and vintage within my Repurpose Me shop as well.
About my artwork:
Most of my textile art work doesn’t reference recognisable form, in which I apply abstraction. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted and sometimes appear as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet; well-known tropes merge, meanings shift, past and present fuse. By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language, I want to amplify the astonishment of the spectator by creating compositions or settings that generate tranquil poetic images- that leave traces and balances on the edge of recognition and alienation.
Notwithstanding, other art disciplines I work in are saturated with obviousness, mental inertia, clichés and bad jokes. They question the coerciveness that is derived from the more profound meaning and the superficial aesthetic appearance of an image. By choosing mainly formal solutions, I try to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. Time and memory always play a key role. These works demonstrate how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and often tells a story about the effects of global cultural interaction over the latter half of the twentieth century. It challenges the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other, between our own ‘cannibal’ and ‘civilized’ selves. By parodying mass media by exaggerating certain formal aspects inherent to our contemporary society, I make works that can be seen as self-portraits. Sometimes they appear idiosyncratic and quirky, at other times, they seem typical by-products of American superabundance and marketing......
"Her works are based on formal associations which open a unique poetic vein. Multilayered images arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned." (http://500letters.org/form_15.php)
