thea rae - artist & performer
Artist Statement
Throughout our lives, we create connections - to places, moments, and individuals. These connections craft networks, invisible threads and pathways, that anchor us within our own experience and to one another. My work, spanning sculpture, installation, and performance, seeks to visualize and explore this philosophy of interconnectedness.
In my sculptural practice, I celebrate the unique patterns formed by our choices, encounters, and environments. Using sustainable and repurposed materials, I challenge the often wasteful practices in the art industry. My current tension series utilizes wood scraps from past robotic works, transforming offcuts into three-dimensional structures through a process of selection, hand-shaping, and tensioning. This approach not only minimizes waste but also creates a dialogue between digital precision and handcrafted aesthetics.
Parallel to my sculptural work, I create installations for performance research that further explore human connection, choices, and trajectories. Using materials like rope, trees, truss, and bamboo, these installations become physical manifestations of our interconnected experiences. By collaborating with diverse movement practitioners, I deepen my investigation into how we navigate and influence the webs of our lives.
Through both my sculptural and performance work, I emphasize our inability to create in isolation. Some threads in our personal webs may be more vibrant, but none are inconsequential. Without any single point, our networks would take an entirely different shape. By making these invisible threads visible across different mediums, my work invites viewers to contemplate the complex, beautiful totality of our experiences and the profound impact of our interconnections.