Celene's Statement:
Like many urban and suburbanites, I am mostly in places where nature is either absent or ruthlessly limited. My personal response to these experiences is to investigate and emphasize the contrast of human activity to its place in nature's inexorable processes. I am interested in creating intersections between the real and surreal, the natural and the simulated.
While I am aware of the particularities of the various media I use, I nevertheless strive for a consistency of approach that transcends materials. Transition and change are central themes in my work, so I choose materials whose properties are illusive and can be manipulated to make them seem to be what they are not. This approach applies to my sculptural objects as well as my installation work. By creating large-scale environments, I am able to insert the viewer fully into these alternative realities, placing them in spaces that are both contemplative and disturbing. These reconfigured visions, unreal and familiar at the same time, are intended to inspire a re-examination of the elegant structure of our reality as well as an imagining of others.