STATEMENT
My artwork explores the presence, absence and imprint of bodies in domestic and public spaces. In my sculpture and installations, I exaggerate the scale and presence of familiar care products through repetition. Objects such as toothbrushes, tissues, towel dispensers, and rags are representative of the labor of tending to ourselves and others. In my installations, I offer places to reflect on touch, care, and survival.
The history of queer archival practices shapes my life and my work. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, preserving queer culture has meant archiving even the most mundane or domestic objects as relics- to honor the dead and to imagine a future where what is deemed archival is interrogated and ordinariness is celebrated.
Material use and connection through touch weave throughout my work. Thus, the sculptures I make are often interactive or participatory and originate from donated or used objects. By inviting visitors to fold socks in the gallery, answer a public telephone in a bathroom stall, or sit inside an upright bathtub, I connect with audiences through these seemingly banal objects of daily living.
The recent experience of caring for my dad while he was dying from dementia, and subsequently sorting out his belongings after his death, began a seismic shift in how themes present themselves in my work. I newly began experimenting with depicting flattening tissue boxes as “fabric paintings” made from hand-me-down rag scraps. And creating long scrolls of abstracted landscapes on continuous cloth toweling inspired by traveling by car throughout in the Midwest.
My artwork explores the presence, absence and imprint of bodies in domestic and public spaces. In my sculpture and installations, I exaggerate the scale and presence of familiar care products through repetition. Objects such as toothbrushes, tissues, towel dispensers, and rags are representative of the labor of tending to ourselves and others. In my installations, I offer places to reflect on touch, care, and survival.
The history of queer archival practices shapes my life and my work. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, preserving queer culture has meant archiving even the most mundane or domestic objects as relics- to honor the dead and to imagine a future where what is deemed archival is interrogated and ordinariness is celebrated.
Material use and connection through touch weave throughout my work. Thus, the sculptures I make are often interactive or participatory and originate from donated or used objects. By inviting visitors to fold socks in the gallery, answer a public telephone in a bathroom stall, or sit inside an upright bathtub, I connect with audiences through these seemingly banal objects of daily living.
The recent experience of caring for my dad while he was dying from dementia, and subsequently sorting out his belongings after his death, began a seismic shift in how themes present themselves in my work. I newly began experimenting with depicting flattening tissue boxes as “fabric paintings” made from hand-me-down rag scraps. And creating long scrolls of abstracted landscapes on continuous cloth toweling inspired by traveling by car throughout in the Midwest.
BIO
Emmett Ramstad’s art practice explores body maintenance and the intimate collectivity of public space through sculpture, installation, performance, and social engagement. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota he has exhibited artworks nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Rochester Art Center. He is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including a McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, an Onassis Eureka Commissions Grant, two Minnesota State Arts Boards grants, a Franconia Sculpture Park Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a Forecast Public Art Research and Development Grant, and an Art and Change grant from the The Leeway Foundation. He has participated in several artist residencies including Marble House Projects, Hyde Park Art Center, Kala Art Institute, and Tofte Lake Center and performed in productions with collaborator Maxe Crandall and BodyCartography Project, in addition to making costumes and sets for five touring contemporary dance productions. He has curated and organized numerous gallery shows, given lectures and artist talks widely, and his work is in collections in the Walker Art Center library, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, The Weisman Art Museum, Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Second State Press. Ramstad is currently a lecturer in the Department of Art at University of Minnesota.
Emmett Ramstad’s art practice explores body maintenance and the intimate collectivity of public space through sculpture, installation, performance, and social engagement. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota he has exhibited artworks nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Rochester Art Center. He is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including a McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, an Onassis Eureka Commissions Grant, two Minnesota State Arts Boards grants, a Franconia Sculpture Park Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a Forecast Public Art Research and Development Grant, and an Art and Change grant from the The Leeway Foundation. He has participated in several artist residencies including Marble House Projects, Hyde Park Art Center, Kala Art Institute, and Tofte Lake Center and performed in productions with collaborator Maxe Crandall and BodyCartography Project, in addition to making costumes and sets for five touring contemporary dance productions. He has curated and organized numerous gallery shows, given lectures and artist talks widely, and his work is in collections in the Walker Art Center library, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, The Weisman Art Museum, Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Second State Press. Ramstad is currently a lecturer in the Department of Art at University of Minnesota.