Virgil Marti, Resident Artist Lecture 2012

Virgil Marti gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic and curatorial practice. Marti’s interdisciplinary practice ranges from sculpture, textiles, painting, drawing, collaboration, and installation to explore ideas of history, autobiography, and domestic space. Marti’s wide ranging approach to materiality and use of objects draws from his interest in exploring how humans attempt to redesign natural forms, and to think about how objects can create meaning in spaces. Marti particularly draws on wallpaper to think about how these natural forms can be interpreted, through thinking about the wallpaper as a medium in exploring desire and material. Throughout the lecture, Marti states how this interest in investigating aesthetics draws from his adolescence, through a desire of watching himself becoming older and observing a younger generation appropriating the material his generation once created. Marti ends his lecture stating that no matter which direction his work goes, it is important for him to always inject his practice with a wide emotional range, which helps him learn how to control and modulate his voice as an artist.