Behind the scene

Open Windows envisions a cellar that provides a quiet refuge from the frenzy of everyday life. The result captures a sense of the sacred, the cellar becoming a space for reflection, celebration and meditation on the senses.

I envisioned a cellar that would provide a quiet refuge from the frenzy of everyday life, a sanctuary in which to unplug and give oneself over to appreciation of the moment. A space in which to celebrate the nuances of a glass of wine, the warmth of an evening with friends, the beauty of simple materials and clean lines. In the inset cabinetry, overlapping panels of gilded wood trace the outlines of a stained glass window. Where there was glass, there is air; in place of lead, gold. Stripped of color and internal detail, the windows lose their traditional narrative clarity, their curved lines tracing forms now unfamiliar, abstract – an ambiguity that carries with it both the freedom of new interpretation and the tension of the undefined. The result captures a sense of the sacred without the specificity of a single ideology. The cellar becomes a space for reflection, celebration, and meditation on the senses.

My work introduces distortion to patterns and symbols sourced from religion, science, and history to explore the disparity between the certainties of ideology and the fractured nature of contemporary living. By simultaneously adopting and adapting familiar iconography, I leverage preexisting cultural connotations to expose our underlying assumptions of the world around us.

Complete in their incompletion, these altered symbols open themselves up to new interpretation– an ambiguity that carries with it both the freedom of self-determination and the tension of the undefined.

 Trained as a mosaicist in the Byzantine tradition, my materials are central to my work: the permanence of stone and metal; the magnificence of gold; the fragility of hand-cut paper. Whether mosaic, sculpture, or installation, every inch of the work is cut and placed by hand - the slowness of the process essential to its message, each step an act of devotion that moves towards the creation of a unified whole.

"I wanted to transform the wine cave into a sanctuary, the wine cabinet into a tabernacle of sorts -- a place of reflection, ritual, and shared experience. The toast, like a secular prayer, offers us a moment in which to declare our greatest hopes, our deepest gratitudes, and our most defining celebrations." - Samantha Holmes

Samantha Holmes is a Bronx based artist who focuses on conceptual and material experimentation in the medium of mosaic. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Palazzo Fortuny (Venice), in conjunction with the 2015 Venice Biennale, the Bronx Museum of the Arts (NYC), and the Sharjah Art Museum (UAE), and her public art installations can be seen throughout the US and abroad. She is the recipient of the 2011 International GAEM Art Prize (Young Artists and Mosaic), as well as the 2013 RAM prize for mosaic. She holds degrees from Harvard University (BA, Visual and Environmental Studies, 2006) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Ravenna (MFA, Experimental Mosaic, 2014), and is co-founder of the custom mosaic studio Motivo Mosaic in New York.

Artist website : samantha-holmes.com