KAREN ANN BUCHNER
SOUVENIRS OF PERFECT NEGLECT
Artist Statement:"Souvenirs of Perfect Neglect" is a commentary on the delicacy of childish memories and the sense of nostalgia that
lingers when remembering" home" versus the later acquired adult reality of capitalism, tourism, industrial corruption and pollution.
As a WNY artist, some of the forms that spell "home" to me are unconventional. I grew up in Niagara Falls, NY in a quiet residential
neighborhood with beautiful tree-lined avenues yet closely surrounded by heavy industry. As often as I frequented the playground I also
trespassed onto the property of chemical factories, brown fields via railroad tracks and the Niagara Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Doing so often enough in that pre-9/11 world that they seemed ěpartî of my own back yard. Electrical towers and power lines are as familiar and beautiful to me as the trees.
In strong contrast, Niagara Falls at the time was both a world-class destination AND one of the most toxic places to live in the United States.
From residual memories, I work repetitively to solidify ephemeral impressions into solid form (souvenirs) utilizing materials that are readily available and simple.
Though trained in traditional sculptural techniques and methods (bronze casting, welding, etc.), due to a diagnosis of Essential Tremor at the age of 34,
I now work almost exclusively in common household materials such as string, wax, masking tape, wire, papier-mache and plaster of paris.
It is my hope that this project encourages dialogue about our environment, its past secrets and how it influences our perceptions as well as our health.
As a native WNY individual with significant health issues, I must ask myself how much did this environment,
though beautiful through my eyes and ever so close to my heart, affect my identity consciously, unconsciously and physiologically?
Proposal drawing
Installation
LOST TIME
Lost Time is about missing days.
THE TEN WORLDS OF NICHIREN
Buddhism identifies Ten Worlds--ten states or conditions of life that we experience within our lives,
moving from one to another at any moment according to our interactions with our environment and those around us.
Each of us possesses the potential to experience all ten, from the prison-like despair and self-hatred of Hell to the expansive joy and wisdom of Buddhahood.
The Ten Worlds are Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Humanity, Heaven, Learning, Realization, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.
By strengthening our spiritual lives through the practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nichiren Buddhism teaches that rather
than being at the mercy of our surroundings we can develop the ability to set our own direction and spend more of our lives in the more positive life states.
ADDITIONAL WORK
About the Artist
A native of Niagara Falls NY, K.A. Buchner is a sculptor/mixed-media artist currently living and working in Buffalo.
Through hands-on processes she explores the various depths and consequences of memory and its links to identity.
In the late 80's, Buchner spent three and a half years studying large scale installation at SUNY- College at Purchase before obtaining a
BFA in sculpture at the University at Buffalo in 1996. She has shown in numerous WNY and PA galleries.
As a participant in the 46th Western New York Exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Museum in 1996 she won the Menno-Alexander Memorial Award for Sculpture.
Most recently she was a featured guest artist at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center's 50th Anniversary show "Golden: A Community Art Party".
EXHIBITIONS:
2015
EDUCATION:
1992-1996 State University of New York (BFA-Fine Arts - Sculpture), Buffalo, NY
-SOUVENIRS OF PERFECT NEGLECT
-LOST TIME
-THE TEN WORLDS OF NICHIREN
-ADDITIONAL WORK
-ABOUT THE ARTIST
"Sometimes one has to spend time in an antiworld to become conscious, free and powerful in the chosen one" - Louise Nevelson
The sculptures
Images of colored life, events one remembers soundly.
Blank patches, swathes of "no comment"- but surely you were there weren't you?
And those many fleeting moments in-between, fragile paper framing nothing.
Lost Time is a quiet accounting, in columns and rows, of moments in a life.
Used packing material, already a delicate die-cut tracery of where tea used to be,
becomes a visual memory.
"Hell" 2012
Calligraphic Animalcules #3
Calligraphic Animalcules #2
Untitled
Boundary II
© David Moog
CV
"K.A.Buchner & Bruce Bitmead:Grounded" - BOX Gallery, Buffalo, NY
"Big Orbit Annual" Buffalo, NY
(Awarded "Juror's Pick")
2014
"Plates & Pasta" - Buffalo Arts, Buffalo, NY
2013
"-42.8864N, 78.8786W" - The Brew House Association, Pittsburgh, PA
2012
"K.A.Buchner: Ten Worlds" - Atmosphere 62 Gallery, Buffalo, NY
"The Arts Studios Annual" - Buffalo Arts, Buffalo, NY
"Plates & Pasta" - Buffalo Arts Studios, Buffalo, NY
2008
"10th Annual M.A.S.H. Bash!" - American Red Cross Headquarters, Buffalo, NY
"Gruppen Works III" - Cosmopolitan Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2007
"Big Orbit Annual" - Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, NY
"Gruppen Works II" - Cosmopolitan Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2006
"BRAvo!" - Hauptmann-Woodward Institute, Buffalo, NY
2005
"K.A. Buchner & A. Mogavero: Recent Works" - Cosmopolitan Gallery, Buffalo, NY
"BRAvo!" - Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY
2004
"Manipulated, Stripped, Beaten and Hung: Ways of Working With Paper"
Niagara Arts Cultural Center, Niagara Falls, NY
(Awarded Second Place)
2001
"K.A. Buchner: Boxed Assortment" (solo exhibition)
Art Gallery at Niagara County Community College, Sanborn, NY
"Big Orbit Annual" (Honorable Mention) - Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2000
"Big Orbit Annual" (Honorable Mention) - Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1998
"Two Studios - Five Artists" - Peepshow Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1996
"Western New York Exhibition" (Recipient of Menno Alexander Reeb Memorial Award for Sculpture)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1987-1991 State University of New York, Purchase, NY
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