Coming from a metalsmithing background, I am continually confronted with the debate as to how such craft-based disciplines qualify as fine art. The leading argument to advocate for metalsmithing as fine art is one that requires an advanced skill level be present in the artist’s work. I was introduced to this conflict within the medium at the beginning of my experience fabricating pieces and it led my interest to process-based work.
Though I take interest in this debate within metalsmithing, I find the process of fabrication to be what is most interesting for me as a maker. I find it much more liberating to prescribe a body of work with a set of parameters. Working within those confines, I am able to stretch the limits of each parameter till I feel I’ve exhausted every possible variation. I find that this process interests me most because, while it seems that I have total control over materials, methods and tools of making, I’m often responding to these things instinctually. I realized making work is determined as much by my body knowing the material as the sequencing of processes. My series of work lends itself to the materiality of the silver, porcelain, and silk thread. My interest in process and the manipulation of materials leads me to draw from these materials the suppleness of the porcelain, thickness of the thread, and whiteness of the silver.
Christine Osinski
Staten Island Shoppers
Osinski took these photos with a hidden medium format camera in different locations throughout Staten Island. I’m interested in these photos in the way that they engage me as a viewer. Once I had that knowledge, it made me feel like I was witnessing a secret or personal moment of the people being photographed, especially the photos of the women in the supermarket. The people no longer look like they are under the gaze of the camera, but the gaze of another person, and I think this idea can be elaborated on in interesting ways. I like the way it forces me as the viewer to be the person facing the people in the photograph.
