Mirta Kupferminc

Mirta Kupferminc was the second artist to visit SMCM during artweek. She joined the photo-drawing-digital round robin and debated the philosophy and theory behind art during the discussion portion. For the last hour or so of class, she showed some pieces from her portfolio and went about explaining the process of creation that she follows. Later, she gave a lecture on the art she has created in response to the Holocaust-related experiences that she has had to deal with through the stories of her parents. Her talk in Cole Cinema focused mainly on her work with yarn, film, and installation.  

From the lecture and discussion portion of the round robin, she described, sometimes in detail, the process behind some of her work, which is primarily digital. Several of her final digital works have other mediums included. For example, she showed us several final works that had grown from other mediums along the way. She would start with a sculpture then paint a painting. From there she would do some etchwork. After completing all of these steps, she would either scan or photograph each piece to transfer it into a digital format. Once in the digital format, she would combine each piece – etching, sculpture and painting – to make a completely new and different work of art with each element. I particularly admired this technique, etc. because I have an interest in many different mediums and the combination of multiple ones. The crossing of the mediums adds a lot of interest to the work.

In her formal lecture, she discussed a particular showing she had at a college recently. She took a winged chair and based an entire exhibit off of the chair and the meaning behind tattoos. She had a young, very tattooed man sit in the chair while she photographed him. His entire body was covered in ink, by choice. In juxtaposition, she placed her mother. Her mother only has one tattoo and that is the number that she was given while living in Auschwitz. She made a point at the beginning of her exhibition by having each attendee receive an ornamental tattoo. If the person was wearing something red, they received a number and if not, a design of their choice. She had two very interesting parts to her installation. One part was with a projection she had on the wall that was text. When someone walked in front of the projection, casting their shadow on the wall, “invisible” text was revealed. Another interesting part of the installation was a mirror tunnel-creation. There was a hole in the wall that people could stick their head into. On each end of the tube-like structure were mirrors, so that it appeared endless. She had text on the inside of that structure as well.

Mirta had a lot of great ideas and projects that she presented while she was here, that I cannot include them all in this paper. She is such a multi-dimensional, charming artist that her work never fails to impress. Her presentation of her work, in her words, in her way certainly helped my impression of it as well.