kim cridler’s welded grid vessels: skeletal maps of the form

I’ve been a fan of Kim Cridler’s metal work for a few years and was excited to see that she now has a website. Cridler, Assistant Professor, Metals, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, creates objects because she believes in “their power to enrich, record and extend our lives.”

Footed Bowl With Apples, steel, bees wax, 55” x 36” x 42”

Footed Bowl With Apples, detail

Her portfolio includes both large and small sculptural vessels, public art, installations and a glimpse into her sketchbook.

Pail With Fish, steel, cast bronze, mother of pearl, silver, 32″  x 51″

Pail With Fish, detail

Game Study, bronze, freshwater pearls,  38″ x 10″ x 5″

Game Study, detail

Cridler at work
(artist in residence, The Paine Art Center and Gardens, 2006)

Cridler with vessel

“In my work, the grid-like forms represent a way of understanding, stable and enduring but without lived experience. Materials with rich associations such as woven hair, cast soap made from lye and fat, cast and carved beeswax, and the use of stretched and stitched gut or silk, are ways of casting different values and histories against the skeletal armatures. The materials I introduce, the patterns and ornamentation I render, complete these structures with the kind of emotional and sensual meaning that knowledge and language cannot adequately account for.”

See the slideshow below, from photographer Jim Escalante, who captured Cridler’s welded work beautifully in his photographs.

Kim Cridler Metal Work – Images by Jim Escalante

A short video from UW-M – great insight about how she got into metalsmithing, her ‘roadmaps’ for each piece and her mission for the department. Love this.

More images of Cridler’s work, including several work in progress shots (here and here too), and information about the artist at The Paine Art Center and Gardens.

Can’t get enough? There are even more images at Lisa Sette Gallery.