Bea Fremderman and Grottoes

Artist Bea Fremderman collects discarded detritus from a New York shoreline. She chooses materials from a retired landfill on Dead Horse Bay and assembles her gatherings using a technique similar to that used to make Tiffany lamps.

As part of the Considering Kin theme, on the first floor of the Art Preserve, a grouping of Fremderman’s sculptures will be installed alongside works of artists from the John Michael Kohler Art Center’s collection by grotto-inspired makers Jacob Baker and Madeline Buol.

Grotto building has roots in Europe, particularly in German Catholic traditions. Grottoes are composed of statues and structures in homage to faith and contemplation. Their surfaces are commonly adorned and formed with materials such as colored glass, gems, pottery, porcelain, minerals, and objects gathered by the maker(s).

Throughout the twentieth century, there was a rich production of grottoes in the upper Midwest, inciting pilgrimages and tourist visits. Most significantly, Father Wernius’s Dickeyville Grotto has inspired numerous people to construct their own grottoes and shrines.

The sculptures in the exhibition are the culmination of a dedicated and deliberate gathering practice, reflecting the contributions of source places and people. Regardless of scale, the conglomerations are fossils of objects’ pasts and memorials of artists’ care.

Internally lit, her sculptures cast colorful refractions, like a stained-glass window in a church. Recontextualization and illumination of found objects create new connections and moments of observing, inviting meanings to emerge between previously disparate components. Now divorced from their original uses or sites, the fragments are presented as new formations for visitors to contemplate, whether it be in prayer, reflection, or levity.

Bea Fremderman: Weeds Compared to Flowers, a solo exhibition, will be on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center October 2023 through early March 2024.

Image: Bea Fremderman and Grottoes installation view at the Art Preserve, 2023. Bea Fremderman, untitled, 2023; metal, glass, and found objects. Courtesy of the artist.