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Hailed as one of the world's foremost wire sculptors, Elizabeth Berrien brings a new collection of animal sculptures woven from single strands of wire to Gallery Dog.
A five-foot baby giraffe was hand-twisted from electric fence wire, left over from a horse fencing project in my back yard . Other electric fence sculptures include a leaping stag, an eagle head trailing wisps of wire, and a large pair of snails. A vividly colorful Chinese Dragon makes use of telephone wire, coated clothesline, and all the other colored bits that accumulate about the artist's old town studio over the Art Center.
One of the least pre-possessing works in the collection is Berrien's first effort, Picasso's Cat , made while the artist was still a teenager in 1968. It's a jumbled, barely recognizable, three-toed feline. But so much better than I could draw at the time. I was so creatively frustrated back then. I could see all the energy lines in animals, but I couldn't express them on paper. Wire was very forgiving. If I didn't like a line, tweaking it a little would make it better. And the more I practiced, the better they got...
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Every year, for thirty-five years, Elizabeth Berrien has immersed herself in a personal exploration of wire sculpture, a virtually untapped medium at the time she took it up. Every year, she's learned to master the technical difficulties of making wire behave. Not just to fix the lines that express and define living creatures, but also to incorporate a surprisingly strong and resilient superstructure. The resulting harmonious union of lace-making and engineering creates works that look like intricate, 3-dimensional line drawings. Her sculptures are in homes and landscapes on every continent besides Antarctica, and we're working on that .
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Learning that the British author of a book called Wire Magic was putting together a web site directory of international wire sculptors, Berrien submitted images of her works and was granted a personal page in the site's gallery section. She is considered to be among the finest of all living wire sculptors.
Berrien enjoys the particular challenge of creating remembrances of animals special to her clientele; several north coast families have portraits of their own dogs, cats, horses and birds. She just completed a life-sized equine sculpture for acclaimed horseman Richard Shrake, folding it like origami to fit it in a stuff sack to fly it to Oregon. At the airport itself, she carefully unbent and smoothed the sculpture, to hang on Mr. Shrake's living room wall.
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Another landmark-scale Berrien sculpture is the much beloved Pegasus hanging in Louisville International Airport. In November, Berrien will be flown to Louisville to consult on the removal, cleaning and storage of the Pegasus while the terminal undergoes renovation. During her stay, she's slated to give workshops at local schools and possibly conduct a slide lecture with the Louisville Art Association.
The Gallery Dog exhibit runs from September 1 to September 30. Elizabeth Berrien will demonstrate her hand-twisted technique at the artists' reception during Arts Alive, Saturday September 6 from 6 to 9 PM.
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World Class Wire Sculpture · Elizabeth Berrien
Inquiries: (707) 445-4931 · Email: wirezoo@earthlink.net
Content and images copyright © 1968-2006 Elizabeth Berrien. All rights reserved.
Updated Jan 5, 2006 · this page valid HTML 4.01
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