Art

Item Description

This unique paper art piece is by Jaime Bennati, Upper School Visual Arts faculty member.  Matted and framed, the piece measures 10"x21".

Jaime Bennati is a paper artist and collector who examines the human relationship with material consumption. By collecting and gathering materials that are often overlooked, she prompts the viewer to question our relationship to things we keep and discard daily. She creates relief sculptures and installations that reference forms in nature. She graduated from The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a B.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Sculpture and a Masters of Arts in Teaching. She is currently an Artist in Residence with the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. She has exhibited in Baltimore, Maryland, Columbus, Ohio, Brooklyn, New York, Richmond, Virginia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

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Artist Statement

I come from a family of intense collectors. In my adulthood, my relationship to collecting has drastically changed. At the age of twenty-one, I helped clean out my grandparents house and it was an impacting experience. I began to question the value of every object, its history and practical use in my own life. Shortly after, my family opened a vintage sales business that has exposed the underbelly of house clean-outs, auctions, and estate sales, which are all often flooded with unwanted junk. Finally after spending time living outside the United States, I became aware of how few possessions humans really need to live a sustainable life. As a result, my relationship to material objects has significantly changed. I’ve developed a practice that attempts to address themes of environmental awareness, mass consumption and temporal existence.

Collecting and investigating materials is a central activity in preparing what I will ultimately make part of my continuous practice. I collect and search for used materials, purposefully limiting the source to the community in which I reside. The materials with which I choose to work are ordinary and undervalued but contain cultural significance. This methodology for choosing materials can be considered a tool for examining the way we, almost arbitrarily, choose to void an object of value.

My process is meticulous, obsessive and extremely repetitive. I use my labor as a meditative act, and its very concept has become central to my inquiries. I start with one base unit that accumulates into large forms or installations. I am influenced and inspired by the thought process and work of artists such as Aurora Robson, Janet Echelman and Vik Muniz.

These investigations exemplify my dedication to transform everyday materials into installations and sculptures that are inspired by forms in nature. I hope that new value is given where it was previously dismissed, ultimately lost, inspiring a new and sustainable appreciation for collecting.