RAIR | 2002-03

Rosemarie fiore | New YOrk

Rosemarie Fiore lives and works in the Bronx, New York. She typically produces artwork out of the actions of mechanisms by converting popular technology such as lawn mowers, cars, waffle irons, floor polishers, pinball machines, fireworks and amusement park rides into painting machines. Rosemarie received her BA and BFA from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has received numerous awards and residencies, and her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including The Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina; The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia; Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles, California; and the Winkleman Gallery, The Bronx Museum, The Queens Museum of Art, and Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. (from 2017)

Rosemarie Fiore, Bruce Willis and the Politics of Fun

Some years ago Rosemarie and I decided to go see one of those summertime sci-fi special effects extravaganzas. The movie was a Bruce Willis vehicle named Armageddon and the plot revolved around a group of outcasts (would-be heroes) fighting a doomsday threat - a large asteroid approaching earth. Before paying for admission Rose decided we should get drunk in order to condition ourselves to have fun.

Rose makes art in the same way she takes in her summer blockbusters. Not drunk, but determined to be entertained and to entertain at all costs. The need of a hook has led her work to become visually loud, aggressive and loaded with sexual innuendoes that seem to be abstract views of a tantric experience preserved in time.

Thinking of power and gender roles, Fiore constructed a large rodeo rope ("Disco Lasso") covered with glass mirrors. The sculpture spins from the ceiling creating a party-like atmosphere that serves to induce a state of dizziness.

Fiore examines the spectacle and excess of the Reagan years by collaborating with Gyruss, a popular 80's Atari-era video game. The outcome is a series of photos documenting the intense battle of artist vs. machine. This mapping exercise (using one photograph to record the entire game on the screen) captures a fun, yet tense time in the search of victory and a high score.

Taking the role of a psychic, Fiore trivializes violence for the sake of spectacle in an installation of rubbings on paper. The rubbings are derived from guns found at pawn shops in New Mexico. Here, Fiore has transformed the inherently evil aura of handguns into gentle graphite drawings resembling snowflakes. The massive installation of these drawings seems like an approaching snowstorm from far away, but once in close range it translates into a scary image as the viewer discovers what these flakes are actually made of.

Rosemarie's accomplishment lies in the fact that she gives sculpture and performance a broader definition. It's largely based on craft and not conceptual trickery or fantasized narratives. Her work promotes the idea that entertainment can also be meaningful without losing its fun. And that is much better than being drunk at a Bruce Willis movie.

— Pedro Velez Chicago, 2002

Roswell Museum

Rair exhibition •  “Rosemarie Fiore" • September 13 - October 20, 2002