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ANALOG

Analog

“…of or relating to a mechanism, device, or technology that represents data by measurement of a continuous physical variable,

relating to or denoting an activity, process, etc., that is not online or computerized but that can also exist or happen with the help of such technology…”

The works in this exhibition span several decades of her studio practice, as well as recently produced pieces specifically for the Morris Graves Museum of Art. Utilizing all her tools in this selected grouping media choices include – but are not limited to, cast lead, burn scar drawings, markers, slip cast ceramic, beeswax, found objects, custom hardware and brackets made from steel, copper and rusted nails.

Bernadette’s attraction to the found object starts with its’ original intent or function, she acknowledges the history of the object as well as its’ formal elements; shape, use, physical make up and ties these concepts to her content as she spins the work into a purely aesthetic function. In their most primary sense, her visual stories speak to our disposable culture which embraces convenience as necessity. Her content often finds its’ starting point there and weaves in and out of tangents about need vs want, food supply and production, and basic simplicity in what we prioritize to have a good life. Within all of that, her works takes the viewer on a ride through history and hysteria, knowing and learning, nostalgia and unknown futures. Bernadette does this with a sense of humor because she is aware that to acknowledge the problems one must also accept their involvement in them. Planned obsolescence drives the marketplace while it creates waste surplus in unmanageable magnitudes. By using would be garbage, Vielbig is commenting on our need to stop generating so much of it. She longs for the day such materials are not readily available to her.

This body of work was made possible in part with assistance from the Faben Artist Fund.