Wisconsin Triennial Brochure 2019

SAIF ALSAEGH MILWAUKEE
1991 (video still), 2018 • 11:55 minutes • Courtesy of the artist
In 2011, Saif Alsaegh moved from Iraq to the United States, leaving behind
the endless violence, deafening explosions, and constant fear of death
that plagued everyday life in Baghdad. Through the medium of video, he
unravels his memories of war and explores the strange tranquility of his life in
Wisconsin. His experimental style of narration is most poignant in 1991, a video
featuring a phone conversation between the artist and his mother, Bushra, an
Iraqi immigrant currently living in Turkey. The film captures footage of Alsaegh
cooking and engaging in other routine activities while video chatting with
his mom, who tells the story of his birth, in 1991, in the midst of the Gulf War.
Bringing together the virtual landscape of the phone, the bucolic landscape
of Wisconsin, and the fragmented landscape of memory, Alsaegh presents
a poetic meditation on war, displacement, separation, and familial love.
EMILY ARTHUR MADISON
Cherokee by Blood, 2018 • Aspen wood, screenprint, cast bronze, and
dried silk • Courtesy of the artist
For Cherokee by Blood, Emily Arthur collected dead songbirds in collaboration
with a zoology lab and then cast the birds in bronze. The bronze birds
are delicately shrouded in silk organza and placed in wooden boxes — a
presentation reminiscent of a viewing at a funeral. Printed on the silk is text
from a series of documents dating from 1906 to 1910 that contain interviews
of over 125,000 people who applied to the US Court of Claims in an effort to
retain their tribal enrollment within the Cherokee Nation. Traumatic accounts
of removal of Cherokee peoples by the government can be read on the silk
that cradles the dead birds, placing environmental destruction and Cherokee
displacement at the forefront of Arthur’s work.
TOM BERENZ MILWAUKEE
Drowning in a Bathtub, 2018 • Acrylic and oil on canvas, 72 x 94 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Worried about the potential for disaster ruining a perfect moment, Tom Berenz
builds up paint on the canvas into what he calls “piles of floating information,”
which resemble crashes and shattered worlds. In Drowning in a Bathtub, diluted,
watery lines and the black-and-white tiled floor provide a sense of space, while
the jumble of fleshy limbs and abstract shapes lend a sense of unease. Drawing
the viewer in with bright pinks and blues, the angst filled bathtub overflows
off the bottom edge of the painting, opening up the image for personal
introspection and interpretation.
TIMOTHY BRENNER MADISON
Purple and Yellow Still Life, 2018 • Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 8 inches •
Courtesy of Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee
Timothy Brenner’s still life paintings are comprised of layers upon layers of
acrylic paint that result in an incredibly tactile and textured composition. Brenner
developed a visual iconography in which he paints a series of reoccurring icons,
symbols, and objects from his life in various environments and color combinations.
For his series of decorative planters, Brenner fastidiously replicated the same
composition in several iterations. The completed paintings were then repainted on
a smaller scale for inclusion in yet another still life: Still Life Shelf. Extending his selfreferential
iconography even further, Brenner reconstructs the shelf depicted in the
painting as a three-dimensional object, replete with hand-painted wood grain, on
which a selection of the physical paintings are then displayed.
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