{"data":{"id":"10964","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":10964,"topgoose_id":337,"tms_id":10964,"display_name":"Sara VanDerBeek","sort_name":"VanDerBeek Sara","display_date":"1976–","begin_date":"1976","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eSince the mid-2000s, Sara VanDerBeek\nhas been testing the relationship between\nphotography and sculpture by creating\nphysical arrangements to be captured by\nthe camera. Incorporating into her\ncompositions printed matter and small\nitems suspended by string, and more\nrecently classical sculpture and architectural\nelements, VanDerBeek examines the\nfugitive nature of memory and its evocation\nthrough objects and their settings. Her\nuse of repeating geometric forms alludes\nto the sculpture of Constantin Brancusi\nand makes reference to the legacy of\nmodernism. She challenged the notion\nof a linear progression of artistic exploration\nin photographs she made in Detroit and\nNew Orleans, two cities in which past glories\nand present failures stand in stark relief.\nSpeaking of the architectural elements\nshe examined in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth\nWard, VanDerBeek has said, “I felt when\nlooking down upon them for the first time\nthat these foundations retained in their\nsurfaces the entire history of our civilization.”\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/30507\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWalpurgisnacht\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e depicts objects\nsuspended from an armature of wood\nand plexiglass. Featuring geometric forms\nsuch as a roughly painted torus and\na rectangular solid with chevrons, the\nphotograph also incorporates a book page\nthat serves as a counterpoint point to the\nrest of the arrangement. The page presents\nthe title of act two of Edward Albee’s\n\u003cem\u003eWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?\u003c/em\u003e. Dramatically\nlit from the left, the overall composition\njuxtaposes ideal forms with the insinuation\nof unbridled menace. This is reinforced\nby the allusion to Albee’s play in which the\ncharacters turn on each other with\nparticular malevolence in the second act.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500473139","wikidata_id":"Q16216145","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:37:48.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:32:39.404-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/10964/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/10964/exhibitions"}}}}