Sally Canzoneri

Artist Statement

I make pictures on paper and three dimensional paper art. Much of my work deals with complex social issues, using sculptural forms to engage and involve viewers.

My folded paper “tabula scalata” lenticular pictures let viewers see one image from one side and a second image from the other side. Walking by, they see a transition from one image to the other. Many of my lenticulars combine historic and present day images to get people thinking about our society. The power of these pieces comes from the fact that the two images are presented in a structure that forces viewers to make the link between them. I’ve pulled two strings from history; but my viewers must decide what kind of knot to tie.

Lenticular pictures have been around in a variety of forms for hundreds of years; I am not the first artist to use the technique. However, I’ve not seen others using it as I do to portray change and generate discussion of social and political issues.

In all of my work, I hope to engage viewers and leave interpretation up to them. Some artists have a story they want to tell in their work; I’d rather let my viewers come up with their own stories and have an active role in determining the meaning of the work.

The piece I’m submitting for this show features photos of my grandmother and my daughter. My grandmother emigrated to the US from Sweden in 1893 at the age of 16. Ninety-one years later, my daughter, was brought to the US at age seven months. These two migrants, from opposite sides of the world became linked together in a family through two generations of native born Americans. For me this is one example of the story of our country’s collective identity as a nation built and enriched by immigrants from around the world. It is also an example of the complexities of how that identity has been realized in the lives of individual families.