Artist Krista Svalbonas experiments with Dibond aluminum composite material to create abstract architectural sculptures. In her “Migrator” series, the artist creates musings on architecture of the past and present.
Svalbonas is a mixed-media artist with a BFA in photography and design from Syracuse University and an MFA in photography, design and sculpture from SUNY New Paltz. Living and working in Chicago, she is heavily influenced by her urban surroundings. Her focus is on spatial relationships to architecture and impact on the psychology of the human environment.
In the “Migrator” installation, the artist travels back in time to her parents experience coming to the United States from Latvia and Lithuania as refugees. Before Svalbonas’ parents were allowed to immigrate to the United States, they spent many years in displaced-persons camps in Germany. The theme for the project derives from dislocation and displacement.
In choosing a material to work with for the series, the artist wanted a substrate that was commonly used in industrial or architectural applications. Careful thought was put into using Dibond and what it has to do with the ideas behind the work. Each piece was printed using UV photographic prints directly applied to the flat, durable substrate. The aluminum composite material is beneficial due to its extremely lightweight quality – making it easy to work with.
The artist chose to also work with the medium of photography as a symbol of the few possessions her family could carry with them along their journeys. Through photographs, the artist’s parents held onto a country they would never see again – they represent the visual memories Svalbonas was raised on.
Photographs used for the “Migrator” series document the home for the artist over a span of eight years and included New York City, rural Pennsylvania, and Chicago. The images of different places the artist has called home were then printed on Dibond and CNC routed. As a result, each piece resembles a juxtaposition between urban & rural facades.
information and photography courtesy of Krista Svalbonas