Brightest Young Things

Words by: Rachel Eisley
Photos by: Mark Silva

Intrigued by the way artists make do in a city notorious for its lack of building stock that is both suitable and affordable, we’ve decided to go on a mission to investigate and document the work spaces of the city’s creative class.

Mia Feuer’s large scale and site-specific sculptural installations both overwhelm and inspire, presenting what Mia describes as “metaphorical terrain,” which references the industrial underbelly of cities that she observed out the window on long train trips up and down the East coast. Mia’s sculptures are brightly colored and spring powerfully from the floor, ceiling or wall, confronting the viewer with the detritus of industrialization, countered by an extremely aesthetically-balanced treatment of the juxtaposition of form and color. Mia’s primary materials include foam and aircraft cable, which she works into a complex system of construction cranes and pulleys to create a three-dimensional landscape painting.

Hailing from Winnipeg, Canada, the now-DC based sculptor Mia Feuer is being featured in two upcoming exhibitions in the DC area. Mia’s solo exhibition, Suspended Landscape, opens at the Transformer on Friday, March 5th from 6 – 8 pm. She will be giving a gallery talk there on Saturday, March 20th at 2 pm. Mia’s second solo exhibition is part of the SOLOS10 exhibit at the Arlington Arts Center, a juried exhibition featuring seven Mid-Atlantic Contemporary Artists that opens April 16th (time TBA) and will be on display until June 5th.

Since Mia received her BFA from the University of Manitoba in 2005 and her MFA from the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth Media in 2009, she has been awarded several travel, research and production grants, including a grant from the Winnipeg Arts Council to facilitate sculptural workshops in the West Bank with Palestinian children. Mia has held two-month residencies at both the Vermont Studio Center and the Seven Below Arts Initiative in Burlington, VT. 2010 brings an art residency in a Millay Colony and in 2011 Mia will hold a residency with the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Mia’s solo exhibitions include the Outerworks Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada) in 2006; FLUXspace (Philadelphia, PA) and the Dorfman Projects (New York, NY) in 2009; and the Firehouse Gallery (Burlington, VT) and the Contemporary Arts Center of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) in addition to her exhibitions at the Transformer Gallery and the AAC in 2010.

In between managing time in the studio, creating private commissions and teaching sculpture at American University and George Mason University, Mia found time to give an interview for BYT. Based on what Mia has already achieved she is definitely art artist to watch, and DC is fortunate to call her a local.

BYT: When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
MIA: I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t love making art. However, being an artist as a profession seems very surreal. For a long time I thought I would work in backstage construction or set design in theatre; I even considered studying art therapy. I never thought making my own art would ever be a real career option.

BYT: Why sculpture vs. other mediums?
MIA: Sculpture is limitless. It’s like an endless, infinite form of expression. I feel that with sculpture-making, I have the ultimate ability to create something that wasn’t there before, or manipulate a space using any material imaginable. I’m attracted to the physicality and the presence of sculpture in a space. However, I do love watercolor painting and almost every sculpture starts out as a watercolor painting before I start building. I have also received absolutely the most amazing instruction, mentorship and guidance in the field of sculpture both from my sculpture professors at The University of Manitoba and the entire Sculpture Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. This has no doubt has furthered my passion and preference towards sculpture.

BYT: What natural or man-made forms have inspired you?
MIA: Here are few examples of things or places I have been thinking about, looking at or spending time in/around:

* Arlington bridge in Winnipeg, Canada
* The Israeli wall built along the ever changing Palestinian border'
* Checkpoints in Nablus
* Destroyed buildings and homes in Nablus, especially buildings where bombs were dropped from Israeli bombers and the homes which were destroyed from bulldozers
* Images of partially vaporized or melted steel frames of buildings from the aftermath of Hiroshima
* Images of the terrible bridge collapse in Minneapolis
* The “barricade” set piece in Les Miserables
* The bridge construction over a small river near my residency in Vermont
* Everything to be seen along i95 including cranes, ports and tunnels
* Fallen trees in Vermont

BYT: What factors led you to develop the Suspended Landscape metaphorical terrain series?
MIA: Traveling through Palestine was definitely the catalyst for this exploration. I began responding sculpturally to really intense moments and places thick with conflict and discord. Some of these places include, gaseous protests, checkpoints, the aftermath of a car bomb in Nablus, or a bulldozed home in a rural Palestinian village. After moving to the United States, I started to respond sculpturally to subtle, implied distress within the confines of an otherwise serene location. An old bridge in Winnipeg, a tunnel in DC, a crane along the side of Interstate 95 are some examples. I use the easily relatable objects and places too as a launch pad to evoke deeper, more metaphorical meaning.

BYT: What do you want to communicate through your work?
MIA: Through my work, I really hope that for even a brief, fleeting moment, the viewer may have the opportunity to consider the instability and chaos of our times.

BYT: Which of your recent accomplishments with exhibitions and residencies have been the most exciting for you? How do you feel about your increasing visibility?
MIA: I can highlight a few of these opportunities specifically, but every show, every residency, and above all my experience in the Sculpture and Extended Media MFA program at VCU have been nothing less than utterly amazing.

One event has particularly stuck out in my mind which was the day that I discovered that my first solo show in the US (at FLUXspace in Philadelphia in March 2009), was reviewed in the September 2009 issue of Art in America. I was alone in a Barnes & Noble in Vermont, flipping through the pages and then all of a sudden saw my name and a picture of my sculpture! I was so excited that I told everyone standing around in the magazine section the news. They really didn’t care but I was shocked!

In the summer of 2007, I showed a piece of sculpture in the For Lovers show at Kim Foster Gallery in New York. This was an opportunity for VCU Sculpture alumni to show in a Chelsea gallery. My piece sold and so I went to the Hamptons in Long Island, NY to install it in an absolutely gorgeous home. When I arrived, I found out that a Picasso painting was coming down to make room for my piece to go up. I was in total disbelief.

My residencies have been amazing as well. I spent four months living in rural Vermont. My time at the Seven Below Residency upon an isolated mountain an hour outside of Burlington with two other brilliant artists was incredible. I lived inside a gorgeous old barn/farmhouse owned by a famous rock band I am not allowed to mention. The view was spectacular. I can’t think of a better and more inspiring environment to make art in.

As to my increasing visibility in the contemporary art world, this past year has been really exciting. I am just so flattered and overwhelmed and thrilled with all the amazing opportunities I have received.

BYT: What have you learned from teaching at the university level and in the project with children from the West Bank?
MIA: I remember a morning in Palestine when me and about 20 children in the Palestinian city of Hebron collected a ton of fruit boxes in a market. These cardboard boxes would later turn into a puppet theatre. I remember the enthusiasm of all the children as they moved loads of old, stained, soggy fruit boxes through a checkpoint. The stern Israeli soldier begrudgingly checked through each and every cardboard box that the children excitedly passed through. Watching these children’s organizational skills, their ability to communicate with me even though we spoke different languages and overall eagerness to participate had a profound effect on me. I learned something that morning that I can’t yet articulate.

BYT: What is your impression of the DC art community?
MIA: So far so good. I don’t know many people because I have only lived here for three or four months, but so far - great!!

BYT: What are some current favorite books and music?
MIA: One of the best books I have read recently was Sven Lindqvist’s A History of Bombing. It was actually a required reading for a course I took last year at VCU called Art, Truth, and the Marvel Of Modern Bombing. It was fucking great. In the studio, I’ve been listening to a bunch of audio books while I work, recently I listened to Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, Push by Sapphire and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I finally got a library card to the Arlington Public library, It’s such a good library!

Lately I’ve been listening to The XX a lot, really great in the studio to work along to. I’m excited to see them here at the end of the month.

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Make sure to check out Mia’s upcoming exhibitions in the DC area (including this Friday at Transformer) and her website, miafeuer.com