Uncover the world of contemporary art with us! Today we feature eco-artist ⁠Anna Fine Foer⁠, blending digital tech with traditional collage techniques to challenge perceptions & raise environmental awareness. Dive into her inspirations, process & impactful work in this enlightening episode.

Artist Statement

Anachronistic is a word that fits much of my work. Digital technology allows me to manipulate and reproduce images to construct a collage made in a traditional way; constructed with cut paper and adhesive and plays with distortions between visual perspective and surface image.I exploit this combination of the ultra-modern and the old by placing images of new technological devices or practices in ancient or historic settings; a commentary about the state of “civilization”.

Recurring motifs in my work include scientific discoveries, technology, alternative energy, location, and natural or unnatural disasters, though my output cannot be categorized in terms of specific subject matter; instead, it is my underlying approach and aesthetic that represents the unifying element. When I have an idea, I make many sketches to discover the best way to convey the idea and then search for the images to incorporate into a collage.

My work has more than one story to tell. I may be both trying to describe the curve of the earth on a flat piece of paper and using collaged images to blur boundaries between the natural and the manufactured/technological world, representing simultaneously land, sky, water and architecture.

Bio

Anna decided she was going to be an artist when she was 11-when she lived in Paris for a summer, visiting every museum and gallery.

While a fibers/crafts major at Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) she became fascinated by the relationship between maps and the land they represent, embarking on a lifelong interest in maps and collage.

After emigrating to Israel, Anna worked as a textile conservator in Haifa and Tel-Aviv. She studied at the Textile Conservation Centre, Courtauld Institute in London, where she received a Post-Graduate Diploma in Textile Conservation. Back in the US, Anna worked in conservation for the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C and for many museum clients as a freelance textile conservator. At the same time, she continued to construct map collage landscapes with sacred, political and meta-physical significance, depicting three or more dimensions on a two-dimensional plane.

Anna now lives in Baltimore and has two, college graduate sons. Her work has appeared at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Maryland Governor’s Mansion, and the Israeli Embassy and is in the permanent collection of the Haifa Museum of Art and the Beer-Sheva Biblical Museum. She was awarded a prize for the Encouragement of Young Artists for work exhibited in the Artist’s House in Jerusalem.