STATEMENT
My artwork explores the presence, absence and imprint of bodies in domestic and public spaces. In my sculpture and installations, familiar care products—toothbrushes, tissues, toilets, towel dispensers— are exhibited in repetition and exaggerated scale, making visible bodily need fulfillment (cleansing, voiding, crying) and the labor of tending to ourselves and others. In my installations, visitors are offered places to reflect on their own histories of touch, care, and survival.
My life and work are shaped by the history of queer archival practices. 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 imagine a future where what is deemed “important” or “archival” is interrogated and ordinariness is celebrated.
Material and connection through touch are central concepts that weave throughout my work. Thus, the sculptures I make are often participatory or interactive 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 then sorting out his belongings when he died, began a seismic shift in how themes present themselves in my work. I recently began experimenting with depicting flattening tissue boxes and towel dispensers as “fabric paintings” using donated rag scraps. And creating long scrolls of abstracted landscapes on continuous cloth toweling inspired by driving throughout the Midwest.
My artwork explores the presence, absence and imprint of bodies in domestic and public spaces. In my sculpture and installations, familiar care products—toothbrushes, tissues, toilets, towel dispensers— are exhibited in repetition and exaggerated scale, making visible bodily need fulfillment (cleansing, voiding, crying) and the labor of tending to ourselves and others. In my installations, visitors are offered places to reflect on their own histories of touch, care, and survival.
My life and work are shaped by the history of queer archival practices. 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 imagine a future where what is deemed “important” or “archival” is interrogated and ordinariness is celebrated.
Material and connection through touch are central concepts that weave throughout my work. Thus, the sculptures I make are often participatory or interactive 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 then sorting out his belongings when he died, began a seismic shift in how themes present themselves in my work. I recently began experimenting with depicting flattening tissue boxes and towel dispensers as “fabric paintings” using donated rag scraps. And creating long scrolls of abstracted landscapes on continuous cloth toweling inspired by driving throughout 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.