The spontaneous aspect of improvisation can create a pressure-filled and nerve-wracking environment. While it is usually attributed to actors and comedians, improvisation can be seen in sculpture as well.
Mitzi Pederson, whose latest exhibition opens today at the UCLA Hammer Museum, takes a random assortment of everyday, commercial objects and creates a beautiful sculpture without any sort of concrete plan or idea. Given a small, stark, empty white room, Pederson has had about four days to construct this exhibition, which will be on display until May 25. She also had only a limited amount of supplies, which she gathered herself from a hardware store.
Pederson admits that this aspect of her art form can be stressful, but she enjoys the rush.
“Part of the challenge, part of what I like is having some constraints, so I try to limit myself. If I thought of something that I really wanted that I thought could add something, I’d probably try to go get it, but at the same time I don’t really have time to go out and shop for things,” she said.
Despite these limitations, Pederson is not apprehensive about the exhibition.
“I was nervous before, but things are going okay now. I guess through experience I’ve learned I can generally trust myself to finish everything and get everything resolved, but there’s always the chance that something else will happen,” she said.
While Pederson studied painting throughout college and graduate school, she entered into this world of abstract sculpture by chance, and said she now feels she has found her niche.
“In undergrad I studied architecture a little bit too, and I kind of liked responding to the space. It is like drawing to me in a way. But I just kind of moved into the object art ““ it just worked better for me,” she said. “I like having walls to respond to, and then it just seems like it just comes more naturally.”
Pederson got the opportunity to present her work at the Hammer Museum after curators from the museum were impressed with some of her past work, including some at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Claire Rifelj, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, had been following Pederson’s work and was involved in bringing her work to the Hammer Museum.
“We program our spots about six months in advance to keep things kind of fresh, and we’re often having new artists who are just getting their careers going. So this spot was open and we proposed the opportunity,” Rifelj said.
James Elaine, curator of the Hammer Projects, is confident that Pederson’s work, though abstract, reflects her personal style.
“It’s definitely (Pederson), but it has a different feel to it, a different air; it’s very airy and fragile. I know (it’s) not done; it’s going to change a little bit. I see a change in the work, at least for the show, but it’s still (her),” he said.
After seeing the space for one day, Pederson gathered materials from the hardware store, including long wooden rods, cinder blocks (which she later chose not to use) and colored string. However, she still did not have a plan for the work when she arrived from San Francisco to begin working on her installation this past week.
“I’ve been working with this material for awhile, so I know how to manipulate it in some ways, and there are things I’m interested in doing with the material,” she said. “It’s just sort of whatever happens with what’s happened. … I’m trying to make this space that fulfills something in my head, but it’s not very specific.”
Along with the raw materials, the room itself is used as part of the piece.
“I think about moving through the space and the sequence of the pieces, and there’s a certain feeling I’m trying to achieve there. In that way I feel like they are all related to each other,” Pederson said.
In looking at the unfinished work a few days ago, Elaine is already able to get the sense of the connectedness and fluidity in the room.
“This is beautiful how the space becomes part of the artwork too. It’s so delicate, and you have to move around the space with your eyes or your body, and it becomes part of the work ““ floor to ceiling, wall, antigravity, flashes of silver light,” Elaine said.
Because this piece fills the whole room, viewers will have a chance to move throughout the space to take in the entire atmosphere.
“Navigating it is going to be part of the whole experience, I imagine,” Rifelj said.
With such an abstract piece and inventive piece of art, each person is sure to have a different interpretation of the work, including Pederson herself.
“I have a picture or there are certain things that interest me, and sometimes I make up stories or have an atmosphere for myself,” she said. “And then, I hope in some ways people see that and feel that somehow, but I feel like they’ll just respond however they respond.”