About
Statement
In nature there are diverse states of existence that I continue to study; the structure of nature, the result of the state of nature by interaction with other forces of nature, the resilience of nature, and the complexity and awe in the engineering of nature. All these states of nature are rooted and formed in the motivation for the need to survive. And allow me to explore the depth and complexity of living, with the hopes of revealing the human condition in visual and sculptural form.
Within the study of ecology and ethology these states of existence are articulated. As a point of reference for sculptural installation building, I have been utilizing specific structural engineering qualities found in growth relationships of plant formations. I have also looked at animal and insect structures to understand their ecosystem engineering. My current work explores the themes of navigating boundaries both conceptually and aesthetically. I explore the ideas of obstacles that are presented and are overcome during growth.
My work focuses on the respect for process and the endless influences found in nature. I build site-responsive clay and fibrous sculptural works made from indigenous materials. The handmade paper I make uses 100% recycled natural fiber clothing or harvested industrial surplus. I beat down these materials to pulp and form handmade sheets of paper that I then use to build with or mix with clay to handbuild. Clay is either site dug or purchased and mixed with pulp for a slurry of paperclay. I hand model, slip trail, and dip or pour paperclay slip between papers, and cut and construct. The work has both a sustainability sensibility, utilizing the vernacular-harvest as content. Like an animal that uses the vernacular from place, I, too, upcycle humble materials and remake them into what I hope to be exquisite sculptural forms.
Bio
Rebecca Hutchinson received her MFA from the University of Georgia (Athens) and her BFA from Berea College. An award-winning sculptor, she was one of 12 recipients of the 2015 “Women to Watch” award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. A dedicated educator of over 20 years, she currently serves as full professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth teaching undergraduate and graduate ceramics.
Hutchinson’s sculptural work is informed by observations of the natural world, drawing inspiration from what she sees as its resilience and resourcefulness. Ranging in scale from site-installation museum projects to gallery sculpture, the work is a profusion of color harmonies, floral textures and absorbing detail. Found embedded in her work are locally sourced materials—native and natural as well as industrial and domestic cast-offs. The work is attentive to the emerging concerns of the Anthropocene: sustainability as an ethos, hybridity as a strategy, and growth as a set of negotiations. Her current work explores the theme of navigating boundaries both conceptually and aesthetically.
Hutchinson’s work has appeared in prominent national and international venues such as the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, SOFA (now Intersect Chicago, represented by Duane Reed Gallery), the Everson Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Vendrell Biennale (Spain), the Danforth Museum of Art, the Lowe Museum of Art, the Canton Museum of Art, and the Fuller Craft Museum, among many others.
Hutchinson’s work has been published in over 80 publications nationally and internationally—notably, Sculpture, Surface Design, Orion, Huffington Post, American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, La Ceramica, Ceramics Ireland, Ceramics Art and Perception, New Ceramics, Korean Ceramic Art Monthly, Women in the Arts, and Revista Ceramica Contemporanea.
She has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships, and awards—notably from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as Artist of the Year by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston and as Distinguished Artist by the James Renwick Alliance in Washington DC. For teaching and research, Hutchinson is highly-awarded by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has been nominated three years in a row for the Outstanding Educators Award of the International Sculpture Center (Sculpture Magazine).
Prominent collections which hold Hutchinson’s work include: the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Maldives Waldorf Astoria, the Boston Children’s Hospital, the Yingge Museum (Taiwan), the Perlman Museum, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Canton Museum of Art.