The Architectural Alphabet
Dana Chodzko
Created : 1998
Donated : 1999
Medium : Mixed media/two-dimensional
Dimensions: 60 inx60 in
Located: 2nd Floor,Senate Gallery West Entrance
“ARCHITECTURAL ALPHABET” 1997
OIL, BEESWAX, PIGMENT, AND COPPER ON WOOD
DANA CHODZKO (b. 1952)
ABIQUIU
GIFT OF THE ARTIST, COURTESY OF GEORGE PEARL
CAPITOL ART COLLECTION, CAPITOL ART FOUNDATION
Born in Long Beach, California, Dana Chodzko received her Masters of Fine Art from Stanford in 1989 and has been teaching for almost twenty years. Currently she is the head of the Sculpture Department at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She came to New Mexico in 1992 as the first Resident Artist of the Tularosa Basin Foundation. Chodzko has received numerous awards, including a Zellerbach Grant, Ford Foundation Grant and National Endowment for the Arts Grant.
Chodzko uses language, text and architecture as inspiration for visual manifestation of shape, color and concept. She explains, “I’m interested in abstract shapes of abstract ideas—double abstractions. Often the language comes first and then I develop a form that represents a fragment of an idea or an abstract thought.” There are many layers in the language, expressed through drawings, paintings, small sculptures and large site installations. Each piece is independent, but maintains a context within a larger whole. Her systematic, layered configurations of forms recall ancient writing and texts in which shapes figure prominently.
The use of natural materials is essential to Chodzko’s works. She chooses “earth” material because it possesses its own properties and the element of chance allows her to relinquish control over a work. Both two- and three-dimensional works are made from various earth materials such as graphite, fired clay, adobe, gypsum, rock or cast pumice stone.
In “Architectural Alphabet,” Chodzko has composed an alphabetical series of architectural elements inspired by cathedrals.
