Sidonie Villere’s monochromatic mixed-media works, have a quiet serenity and a minimalist aesthetic. At the same time, they have layers of meaning and materials. Such duality is at the core of Villere’s art. Rather than conflicting, she sees opposing forces that exist in tandem as a necessary, equalizing ballast that provides stability for the challenges of life.
“My works are self-portraits,” said Villere. “They deal with all the things I see and feel in life and with the human condition. They are personal and universal.”
Villere’s artistic path was forged early, during family vacations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and at summer camp where the outdoors was both playground and classroom. Digging in the dirt gave way to working with clay, which eventually led to a BFA in Ceramics from Newcomb and an MFA in Ceramics from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. In the years that followed, she taught, married and had children before turning to art as her fulltime career. Her background in ceramics is evident throughout her work. But clay is just one of many materials she uses in her working visual vocabulary. Wood, netting, metal mesh, nylon stocking, string, paper, plaster, paint, canvas, wool and plastic are also part of her tactile, malleable mix.
“I love to see what the materials can say for me,” said Villere, who molds, blends, even burns the materials together to create textural, sculptural “picture objects” mostly clad in white.
White gesso board with crumpled plaster-dipped canvas squeezed with wire jutting out from behind a taut overlay of sheer, veil-like nylon stocking speaks to questions of revealing versus concealing, something we all encounter in presenting ourselves in relationships, work and the world at large. A swathe of bleached wool (that looks like cotton) looped and tightened with string and mounted on wood explores a similar question of dualism. Is the string binding the mass or supporting it? An amalgam of fishing net, pressed together with wood, plaster and other materials against canvas-covered plywood looks vaguely nautical and brings the word “wreckage” to mind. But are the components pieces of wreckage or salvage? Hollow, bone-like pieces inspired by lava tubes are both partially closed and partially open. Even Villere’s creative process involves opposites. While the work looks fragile, she drops, stomps on and breaks the pieces to arrive at the ethereal outcome.
“I’m about the contradictions in self preservation,” she says.
