Breanne Rupp
How i remember

Breanne Rupp is a young artist born in Panama who currently lives in San Francisco. She has worked as a graphic designer, editing screen printing, as well as volunteering for many non-profit organizations teaching art workshops for children and adults with special needs.

In her SUB30 residence Breanne paid tribute to her predecessors, women from family environments who were pillars of her training and memory. Women who fulfilled the role of housewives, artisans, repairers and guardians of memory. She used kitchen rugs and tablecloths, not only due to their shapes, but also for the memory and nostalgia inherent in each of those objects that develop layers and imperfections as time passes. Thus, the artist made a visual interpretation of how our memories exist with different patterns and strata of nostalgia.

ARTIST’S TESTIMONY

I make two different types of works, figurative drawings and abstract designs that, at times, happily overlap. Both types of work begin as a result of the meeting and reflection on images and objects. I choose photographs to work with because of the feelings they evoke and the connections they produce. I also keep things such as tea bags, bus tickets, pieces of cloth and paper, and I see how these small objects, considered as waste, can come together and transform into something new. In appearance, the similarities are the repeated use of tablecloths and doilies, the tangible quality created by the layers of fabric, and the rugged sense of imperfection created by the visibility of my hands in the work.

I use doilies and tablecloths not only for their shapes, but also for their inherent nostalgia and to pay tribute to my women ancestors who fulfilled (among others) the roles of repairers, housewives, artisans and memory keepers. The use of layers and allowing the imperfections make a reference to time, imitating the wear it produces on objects and images. These independent and sometimes intersecting works allow me to explore processes and materials. In the combination of these two types of work I made a visual interpretation of how our memories really exist with different patterns and layers of nostalgia, in some parts worn and in others embellished.

My practice breathes new life into things that are often forgotten, discarded, or overlooked, in my personal interpretation of our shared pasts.