Volicer's art is a paper landscape

The Baltimore Examiner
by Jessica Novak, September 1, 2007

WESTMINSTER, Md. (Map, News) - Nadya Volicer takes the world’s waste to create artful worlds. Her installation, This Land is Your Land[fill] at McDaniel College, allows viewers to walk through landscapes,.

“It shows art doesn’t have to be experienced all in the head. Even if you don’t like it, you’re at least going to feel it.”

During her junior year at the Massachusetts College of Art, “things started to get big,” she said. “By my final year in school, I wanted everybody to get inside [my work.]”

Viewers immerse themselves in Volicer’s creations, said Steven Pearson, the gallery’s co-curator. “I really enjoy that you can walk through or on top of her installations because it makes the viewers feel they are a part of the art. The experience is much more tactile.”

Pearson met Volicer at a residency program in a Vermont art studio in the winter of 2006. Her ability to find meaning and purpose in overlooked materials, such as discarded wood, compelled Pearson to invite the Massachusetts artist to McDaniel, Pearson said.

“With my advanced students, I try to get them to look at their environments and find new ways to approach and interpret objects within the environments,” he explained. “Nadya’s work is a perfect example for them.”

After working in wood while exhibiting up and down the East Coast and in England, Volicer recently turned to used paper, she said. Scissors, Exacto knives and glue — the simple tools needed for paper landscapes — allow Volicer to work anywhere.

For the past week, Volicer sliced, folded and glued used newspapers and magazines.

Pearson collected the printed materials from McDaniel faculty and students. However, Volicer also incorporated paper from past installations erected in Nebraska and Massachusetts to extend her materials’ lifespan.

“This Land is Your Land[fill] is about the overabundance of paper,” she explained. “Paper is everywhere. We’re overwhelmed with consumption and waste. We’re turning the earth into a landfill.”

IF YOU GO
This Land is Your Land[fill]: Artwork by Nadya Volicer
ARTIST’S RECEPTION: 7-9 p.m. Tuesday
WHEN: Sept. 4-28; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday
VENUE: McDaniel College’s Esther Prangley Rice Gallery in Peterson Hall
2 College Hill, Westminster
PRICE: Free
INFO.: 410-857-2595

jnovak@baltimoreexaminer.com