SPRING RESIDENTS 2018
anna belleforte
(The Netherlands)
Budapest Series
"This series was inspired by walking around Pest and discovering all the vacant lots in the city, wondering about their histories and their futures. But their present also has presence. I’ve come to see theses spaces – all still used in some way – as an expression of Budapest’s identity and inner consciousness. This is the first time I have worked on such a large scale in papier collé – glued papers, painted with acrylics. The small scale technique of building with strips has visual impact, and it has taught me (again) that I am a ‘builder’ more than a painter. A sense of scale, whether realistic or manipulated, is always an important element in my work. At an abstract level, this reflects our incapacity to oversee and process the vast scale at which cause and effect happens in the world we build."
Anna Belleforte is a mixed media artist with a background in fine arts, architectural conservation and architectural history. She is fascinated by the built environment and her work explores the personal and collective significance of places, identities and desires related to man-made structures, and the human experience of scale and perspective. From restructuring maps (Narrative Maps) and ‘updating’ 17th Century Dutch cityscape drawings (Stadsgezichten), atmospheric paintings of Canadian suburbia (Single Family Home) and site-specific installations that give a different perspective on a place, the work is aesthetically diverse. Yet it always expresses common experiences of (usually urban) spaces. Whether beautiful or gritty, buildings and the built environment have stories to tell.