EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Higher Educational Institutions Attended
Graduate University: Georgia State University 2011
Northwestern State University 2008
University of Mississippi 2001
Post-Secondary:
Mississippi Valley State University 1998
Secondary:
Overbrook High School 1979
Academic and Professional Qualification
M.F.A (Sculpture) 2011
M.A (Sculpture) 2008
M.A Medical Anthropology 2001
B.A. Photography) 1998
Other Distinctions and Awards
Fellowships
Being Humans Fellow, Penn State University 2012-2013
J. William Fulbright Fellowship, U.S. State Department 2010-2011
Scholarships
Graduate Scholarship, Georgia State University 2009-2011
Graduate Scholarship, Northwestern State University 2006-2008
Graduate Scholarship, University of Mississippi 1999- 2001
President’s Scholarship, Mississippi Valley State University 1998
Awards
Outstanding Graduate Sculpture Student Award, Georgia State University 2009
WORK EXPERIEN
Work Experience Outside the University
Oral History Project Researcher, Louisiana State 2004-2011
Art Teacher, Louisiana School for Math, Science, and Arts 2007-2008
Courses Taught
Three Dimensional Design (3)
Sculpture I (3)
Printmaking (3)
Ceramics (3)
Two Dimensional Design (3)
Oral History Project Researcher,
Asbury United Methodist Chruch 2005-2008
Oral History Project Research Analyst,
CaneRiverHeritageAreaCommission 2005
Project Research Analyst,
Davison County Metro Public Health Dep. 2001
University Work Experience
Being Humans Fellow
Penn State University 2013
Course Taught/(Credits)
Four Hundred plus One (3)
Fulbright Fellow,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria 2011
Courses Taught/(Credits)
Aesthetes and Art Criticism in Visual Arts (3)
Art of the African Diaspora (3)
Exhibition Practices (3)
Adjunct Professor,
Georgia State University 2010
Course Taught/(Credits)
Three Dimensional Design (3)
Adjunct Professor,
Northwestern State University 2008
Course Taught/(Credits)
Sculpture I (3)
Project Researcher,
Northwestern State University-Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Natchitoches, LA 2005-2007
Cultural Research Analyst,
Northwestern State University- Office of Cultural Research, Natchitoches, LA 2005-2006
Oral History Project Researcher, University of Southern Mississippi,
Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, Hattiesburg, MS 2000-2001
Project Research Analyst,
University of Mississippi- Office of Rural Health and Research, Oxford, MS 1999-2001
Graduate Student Supervision
Mentored students regarding artists practices and post-graduation career options. Provide resource information regarding international art opportunities, AIR and Ph.D. programs
MEMEBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES
U.S. State Department Alumni Association 2010
Yoruba Contemporary Arts Foundation 2009
PUBLICATIONS
Thesis
M.F.A. Thesis: Ambient Void,
Georgia State University 2011
M.A. Thesis: Black Like Me and the Negotiation of Niggerism,
Northwestern State University 2008
MA. Thesis: The Evolution of Hoodoo in Mississippi and Contemporary Black Health, University of Mississippi
Books/ Monographs
African Americans of New Orleans
Arcadia Publishing 2010
African Americans of Jackson
Arcadia Publishing 2008
Published Articles
(i). Phoenix Savage “Drapetomania”
Encyclopedia of Slavery, Resistance and Rebellion. Greenwood Press 2008
(ii). Phoenix Savage “Hoodoo”
Encyclopedia of Mississippi, University Press of Mississippi 2008
(iii).Phoenix Savage “Hoodoo the Religion of the Blues” Encyclopedia of the Blues, Routledge Publications
Bibliography
(i) Jessica Lynn, Review, “Artist Phoenix Savage use Sculpture to Teach, Inform and Share Stories of Our History” www.zora&alice.com 2010
(ii) Pamela Davis-Noland, Review, “A Labor of Love-The Works of Phoenix Savage” Art Voices, Issue no. 19 2009
(iii)Kim Franklin, review, Art Voices, Issue no. 1 2009
(iv)Maggie Martin, “At a Crossroads” The Times 2008
Northwestern State University, “Hello” Catalog 2008
(vi)Turry Flucker, “Phoenix Savage: A Savage Vision” South, Vol. 1 2003
CREATIVE WORKS
Solo Exhibitions
Ambient Void, Georgia State University 2011
New Works by Phoenix Savage, Stella Jones Gallery 2009
Black Like Me, South Dallas Cultural Center 2008
Black Like Me, Hanchey Gallery 2007
Aunt Jemima Redux, Cottonlandia Museum 2003
Aunt Jemima Redux, Smith Robertson Museum 2003
Welcome to My World, Jackson State University 1998
You Are Here, Johnston Gallery, Itta Bena 1998
Journey of Transformation, Mostly African Market 1997
Blue Soul, Java Joe Gallery 1996
Group Exhibitions
Rising Movers and Shakers of Georgia Art Scene, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, 2011
Standing with Papa Legba-Vodu at the Crossroads, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute 2011
Ain’t I A Woman, Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts 2010
Black Like Me, Eye Drum Gallery 2009
Relamation of Memory, Madison-Morgan Cultural Center 2009
Crossroads, Meadows Museum 2008
Northwestern State University Faculty Exhibition, Hanchey 2007
Offerings, Cane River Contemporary Artist, Badin Roque House 2005
Place as Text: Visions of the Delta, Delta State University 2001
Secular/Spiritual Identities-Blues and Art, University of Florida 1999
Big Muddy: Too Thick to Drink, Too Thin to Plow, Zolla Lieberman 1999
Mississippi Invitational, Mississippi Museum of Art 1999
Gathered Spirits, Smith Robertson Museum 1998
African Creole Presence in Mississippi & Louisiana, Smith Robertson Museum 1999
Community Art Projects
Art Instructor, Art @ Work -Fulton County Arts County 2010
Artist in Residence, Community in Schools, Oakley Training School 2008
Project Facilitator, Voices in Theater Cane River Homes for Girls 2007
Project Facilitator, Project Exposure: This is My Natchitoches Too Morrison Institute of the Arts 2007
Project Facilitator, Images through the Eyes of Nashville’s Community, Village Cultural Center 2004
Project Facilitator, Gyotaku Printmaking workshop, Village Cultural Center 2003
Project Facilitator, Barrelas Community Video Project 1996
Project Facilitator, Connections 21, Albuquerque, Public Library 1996
Project Photographer, New Mexico’s African American Legacy: Visible, Vital, Valuable 1995
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I have recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship exploring research into the contemporary practices of the Lost Wax Technique in Nigeria concerning art governed by the Yoruba concept of Ori. I am a founding member of a non-profit agency headquartered in Chicago that promotes the arts and humanities of the Ifa-Yoruba culture of Nigeria. My works have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally as well as internationally. My art advances the dialog on the criticality of contemporary art from several platforms: an artist working in cast iron, an artist of African descent actively engaging the diaspora as source material, an artist that maintains an art based research practice reaching across disciplines and an artist that holds firmly to the value of the Object as Art.
I have published two books of vintage photography that illustrate Southern Black culture. I have contributed scholarly research to several encyclopedic entries regarding Blues Culture. My scholarly work within the academy is based on ethnographic research of Southern Black culture exploring Hoodoo, Civil Rights, African Spirituality, and contemporary Black Health.
As a professional exhibiting artist I continuously extend my skills to underrepresented communities. I have nearly two decades of experience facilitating community based art projects in diverse settings, from churches to juvenile prisons. These projects engage various mediums employed to awaken the systemic oppression of the creative process often located within these communities.
CONFERENCES ATTENDED
International Conference on Urban Governance and Environmental Challenges in the West African Sub-Region, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 2011
Toyin Falola Annual Conference: Creativity and Cultural Expressions, Ibadan, Nigeria 2011
Roots Symposium: Art History Department Georgia State University 2010
Presentation: African American Artist and the Negotiation of Niggerism
Annual Conference American Anthropology Association, Philadelphia 2002
Presentation: The Evolution of Hoodoo in Mississippi and Contemporary Black Health
African Traditional Medicine & Biomedicine. Accra Ghana 2000
Presentation: The use of African Traditional Medicine during Slavery to the Present among African Americans of Mississippi
CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
(i). Human Touch Project – An aesthetic explorations of the relationship between human and ethereal connectivity http://www.facebook.com/HumanTouchProjectByArtistPhoenixSavage
(ii) I Use My Head- Photographic Project documenting the use of the human head in the public markets of Nigeria
(iii) Twenty Children Cannot Play Together for Twenty Years- An installation of natural disbursement and the diaspora
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
Service inside the University
(i) Mentor- Undergraduate and Graduate level Fine/Applied Art Students
(ii) Developing Facebook exchange between Nigeria and American Art Students
Service outside the University
(i) Development of Made in Nigeria. Fair-trade project employing Nigerian Artist.
(ii) Shrine Improvement Project- International Project engaging service learning and cultural exchange aimed at the renovation and restoration of the historic shrines of Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE:
My research has led to an increase in an understanding of the hidden nuances of American society. My artistic output enriches the visual landscape regarding the dynamic nature of International Black culture. I have conducted research that has led directly to the web based travel guide of African American Landmarks in the state of Louisiana. http://www.louisianatravel.com/african-american-heritage-trail
My art practice furthers metal casting, as a continued viable medium that can advance contemporary art in spite of its failing popularity as an art medium in our Postmodern world.
Teaching Philosophy- Phoenix Savage
I believe that as facilitator of a creative environment I neither enter nor exit with all the answers.
I believe that the classroom environment operates as an open source of ideas, stimulated by rigorous research and debate.
I believe that Art is an extension of the lived experience.
I believe that artists should seek and engage experiences outside of their immediate spheres of being.
I believe that creative output is a process of discovery.
I believe that there are no correct or incorrect answers.
I believe that there are no answers, only temporal resolutions to creative inquiries.
I believe in the spontaneity of the creative process.
I believe in strong work ethics.
I believe in cross-cultural fertilization of ideas, techniques and materials.
I believe in human connectivity and the power of sharing.
I believe that one’s beliefs will dictate their actions.
Artist Statement-Phoenix Savage
Human Body
My relationship with the body is neither nostalgic nor romantic. It is gender neutral and is a deconstruction positioned between issues of labor and diminished usefulness of the human body. It is a search for clues that reveal the intangible narrative of human agency.
Early visualizations of human agency were from a didactic position with the production of object oriented sculptures that carried the weight of historical facts and suppositions located within the African diaspora. See Picnic; http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
This approach to my work proved difficult, first, the views of the dominate culture were far more invested in the denial of space for the narrative of the diaspora, thereby, overlooking any aesthetic merit my sculptures possessed. The second element of difficulty presented as contemporary theoretic cast doubt on the merit of object based art; as if all object making were an extension of Lyotards concept of the metanarrative. However, within my practice the object serves as a motif for the historical objectification of the black body. In my early works objects were selected or created for their ability to play the role of the signifying monkey. See Black Nostalgia http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
Human Agency
Efforts to advert the catch 22 of earlier creative productions, led to a push toward the reflective global self. I embarked on a Fulbright Fellowship engaging Anthropological methods of observation/participation of the Yoruba concept of Ori. My investigation of Ori was a reflective case study examining, myself as a black American female artist in relationship to the people, place and art of Yoruba culture. I explored human agency in juxtaposition to my heads response to emotional and environmental responses that occurred while in Nigeria. See http://phoenixsavage.blog.com/
Technology
My artistic practice has become a hybrid of reflective auto-ethnographic methodologies and participatory processes supported by studio practices. With the inclusion of digital technologies added to my repertoire of indigenous casting methodologies, my practice became more engaged in the exploration of the impact of industrial technological advances that came to impede upon the human body that in turn reshaped applications of human agency. Ironically, technology enabled me to reincorporate the object back into my artistic practice. See Ambient Void: http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
Now
Free from constraints of having a single object carry the weight of the narrative, my practice has a strong emphasis on direct collective engagement as presently underway with the Human Touch Project (http://iah.psu.edu/programs/human.shtml). The Human Touch Project is an art based research project designed to explore the aesthetic relationship between human and ethereal connectivity while engaging the public on a global scale. The project investigates and addresses the invisible space that exists when human beings connect by way of a simple touch. The synergy and emotionality imbedded in the initial touch is carried forth in iron castings. Subsequent human touch from exhibition audience participants furthers my exploration of the body, object and technology.
Biographical Sketch
Phoenix Savage, born Philadelphia, PA. 1961
Phoenix Savage was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship-2010-2011. Savage spent ten months in Nigeria conducting research for a new body of work. In 2011 Savage was selected to exhibit in the bi-annual exhibition of Mover and Shakers of Georgia's Art Scene.
Savage recieved a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Georgia State University in 2011. Phoenix holds two additonal graduate level degrees, the first in Medical Anthropology from the University of Mississippi, 2001, and the second, in Studio Arts from Northwestern State University, 2008. Savage is a graduate of Mississippi Valley State University, 1998, as well as having graduated with a degree in Advertising Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, 1984.
Phoenix Savage has lived and traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. Her personal life experiences as well as her professional experiences as an Anthropologist serve as the foundation for her artworks.
The works of Phoenix Savage have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally. Works of Phoenix Savage are largely held in the private collections.
The sculpture Fire in the Belly of God, was recently aquired by the African American Collection of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Phoenix Savage is widely known for her cultural writings that appear in the Encylopedia of Slavery and Resistance, the Encylopedia of the Blues, and the forthcoming Encylopedia of Mississippi. Her most recent publications are two books of illustrated histories using vintage black and white images: African Americans of Jackson, 2009 and African Americans of New Orleans, 2010 which she co-authored with Turry Flucker.
Commissions include a public sculpture for Sankofa Vision, Inc., 2008, a nonprofit organization serving Shreveport, Louisiana, as well as commissions for private collectors.
Phoenix Savage
Contemporary African American Sculptor
Cv/bio
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Higher Educational Institutions Attended
Graduate University: Georgia State University 2011
Northwestern State University 2008
University of Mississippi 2001
Post-Secondary:
Mississippi Valley State University 1998
Secondary:
Overbrook High School 1979
Academic and Professional Qualification
M.F.A (Sculpture) 2011
M.A (Sculpture) 2008
M.A Medical Anthropology 2001
B.A. Photography) 1998
Other Distinctions and Awards
Fellowships
Being Humans Fellow, Penn State University 2012-2013
J. William Fulbright Fellowship, U.S. State Department 2010-2011
Scholarships
Graduate Scholarship, Georgia State University 2009-2011
Graduate Scholarship, Northwestern State University 2006-2008
Graduate Scholarship, University of Mississippi 1999- 2001
President’s Scholarship, Mississippi Valley State University 1998
Awards
Outstanding Graduate Sculpture Student Award, Georgia State University 2009
WORK EXPERIEN
Work Experience Outside the University
Oral History Project Researcher, Louisiana State 2004-2011
Art Teacher, Louisiana School for Math, Science, and Arts 2007-2008
Courses Taught
Three Dimensional Design (3)
Sculpture I (3)
Printmaking (3)
Ceramics (3)
Two Dimensional Design (3)
Oral History Project Researcher,
Asbury United Methodist Chruch 2005-2008
Oral History Project Research Analyst,
CaneRiverHeritageAreaCommission 2005
Project Research Analyst,
Davison County Metro Public Health Dep. 2001
University Work Experience
Being Humans Fellow
Penn State University 2013
Course Taught/(Credits)
Four Hundred plus One (3)
Fulbright Fellow,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria 2011
Courses Taught/(Credits)
Aesthetes and Art Criticism in Visual Arts (3)
Art of the African Diaspora (3)
Exhibition Practices (3)
Adjunct Professor,
Georgia State University 2010
Course Taught/(Credits)
Three Dimensional Design (3)
Adjunct Professor,
Northwestern State University 2008
Course Taught/(Credits)
Sculpture I (3)
Project Researcher,
Northwestern State University-Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Natchitoches, LA 2005-2007
Cultural Research Analyst,
Northwestern State University- Office of Cultural Research, Natchitoches, LA 2005-2006
Oral History Project Researcher, University of Southern Mississippi,
Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, Hattiesburg, MS 2000-2001
Project Research Analyst,
University of Mississippi- Office of Rural Health and Research, Oxford, MS 1999-2001
Graduate Student Supervision
Mentored students regarding artists practices and post-graduation career options. Provide resource information regarding international art opportunities, AIR and Ph.D. programs
MEMEBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES
U.S. State Department Alumni Association 2010
Yoruba Contemporary Arts Foundation 2009
PUBLICATIONS
Thesis
M.F.A. Thesis: Ambient Void,
Georgia State University 2011
M.A. Thesis: Black Like Me and the Negotiation of Niggerism,
Northwestern State University 2008
MA. Thesis: The Evolution of Hoodoo in Mississippi and Contemporary Black Health, University of Mississippi
Books/ Monographs
African Americans of New Orleans
Arcadia Publishing 2010
African Americans of Jackson
Arcadia Publishing 2008
Published Articles
(i). Phoenix Savage “Drapetomania”
Encyclopedia of Slavery, Resistance and Rebellion. Greenwood Press 2008
(ii). Phoenix Savage “Hoodoo”
Encyclopedia of Mississippi, University Press of Mississippi 2008
(iii).Phoenix Savage “Hoodoo the Religion of the Blues” Encyclopedia of the Blues, Routledge Publications
Bibliography
(i) Jessica Lynn, Review, “Artist Phoenix Savage use Sculpture to Teach, Inform and Share Stories of Our History” www.zora&alice.com 2010
(ii) Pamela Davis-Noland, Review, “A Labor of Love-The Works of Phoenix Savage” Art Voices, Issue no. 19 2009
(iii)Kim Franklin, review, Art Voices, Issue no. 1 2009
(iv)Maggie Martin, “At a Crossroads” The Times 2008
Northwestern State University, “Hello” Catalog 2008
(vi)Turry Flucker, “Phoenix Savage: A Savage Vision” South, Vol. 1 2003
CREATIVE WORKS
Solo Exhibitions
Ambient Void, Georgia State University 2011
New Works by Phoenix Savage, Stella Jones Gallery 2009
Black Like Me, South Dallas Cultural Center 2008
Black Like Me, Hanchey Gallery 2007
Aunt Jemima Redux, Cottonlandia Museum 2003
Aunt Jemima Redux, Smith Robertson Museum 2003
Welcome to My World, Jackson State University 1998
You Are Here, Johnston Gallery, Itta Bena 1998
Journey of Transformation, Mostly African Market 1997
Blue Soul, Java Joe Gallery 1996
Group Exhibitions
Rising Movers and Shakers of Georgia Art Scene, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, 2011
Standing with Papa Legba-Vodu at the Crossroads, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute 2011
Ain’t I A Woman, Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts 2010
Black Like Me, Eye Drum Gallery 2009
Relamation of Memory, Madison-Morgan Cultural Center 2009
Crossroads, Meadows Museum 2008
Northwestern State University Faculty Exhibition, Hanchey 2007
Offerings, Cane River Contemporary Artist, Badin Roque House 2005
Place as Text: Visions of the Delta, Delta State University 2001
Secular/Spiritual Identities-Blues and Art, University of Florida 1999
Big Muddy: Too Thick to Drink, Too Thin to Plow, Zolla Lieberman 1999
Mississippi Invitational, Mississippi Museum of Art 1999
Gathered Spirits, Smith Robertson Museum 1998
African Creole Presence in Mississippi & Louisiana, Smith Robertson Museum 1999
Community Art Projects
Art Instructor, Art @ Work -Fulton County Arts County 2010
Artist in Residence, Community in Schools, Oakley Training School 2008
Project Facilitator, Voices in Theater Cane River Homes for Girls 2007
Project Facilitator, Project Exposure: This is My Natchitoches Too Morrison Institute of the Arts 2007
Project Facilitator, Images through the Eyes of Nashville’s Community, Village Cultural Center 2004
Project Facilitator, Gyotaku Printmaking workshop, Village Cultural Center 2003
Project Facilitator, Barrelas Community Video Project 1996
Project Facilitator, Connections 21, Albuquerque, Public Library 1996
Project Photographer, New Mexico’s African American Legacy: Visible, Vital, Valuable 1995
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I have recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship exploring research into the contemporary practices of the Lost Wax Technique in Nigeria concerning art governed by the Yoruba concept of Ori. I am a founding member of a non-profit agency headquartered in Chicago that promotes the arts and humanities of the Ifa-Yoruba culture of Nigeria. My works have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally as well as internationally. My art advances the dialog on the criticality of contemporary art from several platforms: an artist working in cast iron, an artist of African descent actively engaging the diaspora as source material, an artist that maintains an art based research practice reaching across disciplines and an artist that holds firmly to the value of the Object as Art.
I have published two books of vintage photography that illustrate Southern Black culture. I have contributed scholarly research to several encyclopedic entries regarding Blues Culture. My scholarly work within the academy is based on ethnographic research of Southern Black culture exploring Hoodoo, Civil Rights, African Spirituality, and contemporary Black Health.
As a professional exhibiting artist I continuously extend my skills to underrepresented communities. I have nearly two decades of experience facilitating community based art projects in diverse settings, from churches to juvenile prisons. These projects engage various mediums employed to awaken the systemic oppression of the creative process often located within these communities.
CONFERENCES ATTENDED
International Conference on Urban Governance and Environmental Challenges in the West African Sub-Region, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 2011
Toyin Falola Annual Conference: Creativity and Cultural Expressions, Ibadan, Nigeria 2011
Roots Symposium: Art History Department Georgia State University 2010
Presentation: African American Artist and the Negotiation of Niggerism
Annual Conference American Anthropology Association, Philadelphia 2002
Presentation: The Evolution of Hoodoo in Mississippi and Contemporary Black Health
African Traditional Medicine & Biomedicine. Accra Ghana 2000
Presentation: The use of African Traditional Medicine during Slavery to the Present among African Americans of Mississippi
CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
(i). Human Touch Project – An aesthetic explorations of the relationship between human and ethereal connectivity http://www.facebook.com/HumanTouchProjectByArtistPhoenixSavage
(ii) I Use My Head- Photographic Project documenting the use of the human head in the public markets of Nigeria
(iii) Twenty Children Cannot Play Together for Twenty Years- An installation of natural disbursement and the diaspora
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
Service inside the University
(i) Mentor- Undergraduate and Graduate level Fine/Applied Art Students
(ii) Developing Facebook exchange between Nigeria and American Art Students
Service outside the University
(i) Development of Made in Nigeria. Fair-trade project employing Nigerian Artist.
(ii) Shrine Improvement Project- International Project engaging service learning and cultural exchange aimed at the renovation and restoration of the historic shrines of Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE:
My research has led to an increase in an understanding of the hidden nuances of American society. My artistic output enriches the visual landscape regarding the dynamic nature of International Black culture. I have conducted research that has led directly to the web based travel guide of African American Landmarks in the state of Louisiana. http://www.louisianatravel.com/african-american-heritage-trail
My art practice furthers metal casting, as a continued viable medium that can advance contemporary art in spite of its failing popularity as an art medium in our Postmodern world.
Teaching Philosophy- Phoenix Savage
I believe that as facilitator of a creative environment I neither enter nor exit with all the answers.
I believe that the classroom environment operates as an open source of ideas, stimulated by rigorous research and debate.
I believe that Art is an extension of the lived experience.
I believe that artists should seek and engage experiences outside of their immediate spheres of being.
I believe that creative output is a process of discovery.
I believe that there are no correct or incorrect answers.
I believe that there are no answers, only temporal resolutions to creative inquiries.
I believe in the spontaneity of the creative process.
I believe in strong work ethics.
I believe in cross-cultural fertilization of ideas, techniques and materials.
I believe in human connectivity and the power of sharing.
I believe that one’s beliefs will dictate their actions.
Artist Statement-Phoenix Savage
Human Body
My relationship with the body is neither nostalgic nor romantic. It is gender neutral and is a deconstruction positioned between issues of labor and diminished usefulness of the human body. It is a search for clues that reveal the intangible narrative of human agency.
Early visualizations of human agency were from a didactic position with the production of object oriented sculptures that carried the weight of historical facts and suppositions located within the African diaspora. See Picnic; http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
This approach to my work proved difficult, first, the views of the dominate culture were far more invested in the denial of space for the narrative of the diaspora, thereby, overlooking any aesthetic merit my sculptures possessed. The second element of difficulty presented as contemporary theoretic cast doubt on the merit of object based art; as if all object making were an extension of Lyotards concept of the metanarrative. However, within my practice the object serves as a motif for the historical objectification of the black body. In my early works objects were selected or created for their ability to play the role of the signifying monkey. See Black Nostalgia http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
Human Agency
Efforts to advert the catch 22 of earlier creative productions, led to a push toward the reflective global self. I embarked on a Fulbright Fellowship engaging Anthropological methods of observation/participation of the Yoruba concept of Ori. My investigation of Ori was a reflective case study examining, myself as a black American female artist in relationship to the people, place and art of Yoruba culture. I explored human agency in juxtaposition to my heads response to emotional and environmental responses that occurred while in Nigeria. See http://phoenixsavage.blog.com/
Technology
My artistic practice has become a hybrid of reflective auto-ethnographic methodologies and participatory processes supported by studio practices. With the inclusion of digital technologies added to my repertoire of indigenous casting methodologies, my practice became more engaged in the exploration of the impact of industrial technological advances that came to impede upon the human body that in turn reshaped applications of human agency. Ironically, technology enabled me to reincorporate the object back into my artistic practice. See Ambient Void: http://www.phoenixsavage.com/index.php
Now
Free from constraints of having a single object carry the weight of the narrative, my practice has a strong emphasis on direct collective engagement as presently underway with the Human Touch Project (http://iah.psu.edu/programs/human.shtml). The Human Touch Project is an art based research project designed to explore the aesthetic relationship between human and ethereal connectivity while engaging the public on a global scale. The project investigates and addresses the invisible space that exists when human beings connect by way of a simple touch. The synergy and emotionality imbedded in the initial touch is carried forth in iron castings. Subsequent human touch from exhibition audience participants furthers my exploration of the body, object and technology.
Biographical Sketch
Phoenix Savage, born Philadelphia, PA. 1961
Phoenix Savage was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship-2010-2011. Savage spent ten months in Nigeria conducting research for a new body of work. In 2011 Savage was selected to exhibit in the bi-annual exhibition of Mover and Shakers of Georgia's Art Scene.
Savage recieved a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Georgia State University in 2011. Phoenix holds two additonal graduate level degrees, the first in Medical Anthropology from the University of Mississippi, 2001, and the second, in Studio Arts from Northwestern State University, 2008. Savage is a graduate of Mississippi Valley State University, 1998, as well as having graduated with a degree in Advertising Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, 1984.
Phoenix Savage has lived and traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. Her personal life experiences as well as her professional experiences as an Anthropologist serve as the foundation for her artworks.
The works of Phoenix Savage have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally. Works of Phoenix Savage are largely held in the private collections.
The sculpture Fire in the Belly of God, was recently aquired by the African American Collection of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Phoenix Savage is widely known for her cultural writings that appear in the Encylopedia of Slavery and Resistance, the Encylopedia of the Blues, and the forthcoming Encylopedia of Mississippi. Her most recent publications are two books of illustrated histories using vintage black and white images: African Americans of Jackson, 2009 and African Americans of New Orleans, 2010 which she co-authored with Turry Flucker.
artspan is contemporary art