Maria Guzman’s “Moving In”

A local artist boxes up her feelings about new places

Comments (0) By Dusti Rhodes Thursday, Jan 24 2008

Local artist Maria Guzman’s “Moving In”exhibit at Lawndale Art Center is about adapting to a new environment. “My dad is Colombian, my mother is from Peru, and I was born in Italy; and that’s what a lot of this show is about,” Guzman says. “It’s all different aspects of moving into a space and that experience of making a home.”

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The works in “Moving In” are white, plywood boxes filled with objects that reflect different emotions. Suspense features two boxes suspended in a corner and lined with fabric cut into wavy patterns, “to give that feeling of being in a sort of a dream state where there’s not a firm ground,” Guzman explains. She also made a stuffed-animal monster and a small bed to fit inside one of the boxes. “[The bed] is smaller in scale than the monster; I guess it’s trying to show how small sometimes one feels,” she says. “It’s represents the fear — I don’t know this place, this place is unknown, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

The Pocket series features three boxes stuffed with long, pillow-like sculptures. “It makes me think of comfort, of being warm or being protected,” she says, “being surrounded by all these soft things and making that little space [in between the pillows] the protagonist in each box.” Noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Through February 23. 4912 Main. For information, call 713-528-5858 or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org. Free.
Mondays-Saturdays. Starts: Jan. 18. Continues through Feb. 23, 2008