Lynne-Rachel Altman
Being 709.2
My work is ontological — concerned with the nature of being or existence.
I use sculpture (formal and social), sound, voice, text — whatever I can get my hands on — as symbol/metaphor/formula for calculating the volume of life.
I am grappling with issues of loss and embodiment, identity and mortality, influenced by my experience of my own body, flavored by my body’s transformations and eventual loss and decay, and scented by my relationships with other folks (both in and out of their bodies). This interest has led me to explore relationships of food and the body.
When forced to categorize my work, I consider myself a 709.2 artist, the Dewey Decimal classification for "artists not limited to or chiefly identified with a specific form ."
Despite my lack of loyalty to form or media, I have been exploiting glass for over 25 years. The Food Pyramid uses kiln cast glass to depict the form/volume of the food the United States Department of Agriculture recommends pregnant and lactating women consume each day in its widely circulated 1998 food pyramid. (Bread/cereal group, 6–11 servings; fruit group, 3–4 servings; vegetable group, 3–5 servings; protein group, 3–4 servings; milk group, 2–3 servings; fats/oils, 3 tablespoons; sweets "sparingly.") In 2005, the USDA replaced the old food pyramid with MyPyramid, an interactive online consumption guide, which as far as I can tell, increased the portion size and reduced the number of portions while taking activity levels into consideration. Sweets are still to be used "sparingly." Bummer.