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The most notable conceptual feature of this artist's work is her existential content, by which she investigates many aspects of personality, physicality, individuality, our species within the miasma of ambient reality. The most notable features of her works, are that they are produced in lean and sparing terms of controlled, surreal iconography and reference; and her "re-visitation" of previous pieces, in a continued, committed involvement in and refinement of single and combination works as they evolve over time. Almost all of her Projects are produced by accretion, and by saving and repurposing seemingly unrelated scraps of real life and experience, which then turn into art (or, as she says, "churn into art") to be then again reused, and for another purpose yet again join with newer and more newly born ideas and images. Individual components are often found together; from different times and media, they meet in technological-time-and-thinking-forward. One of the most definitive articles about Rosenthal's methodology is "Barbara Rosenthal: Hoarder of Life to Yield Art," by Cassandra Rijs, who interviewed Rosenthal in Melbourne, Australia, in 2013. In many projects, that practice has persisted over the course of fifty-six years, or, sixty-one years, in the case of her ongoing Journals, 1959-present. It is also worth noting, that every project and portion thereof struggle with the concept of existential, universal identity. They engage the viewer with the artist through the physical artworks as spiritual media incarnate. Comprising each Project below are the art, media and artifacts that accumlated under each concept as it evolved and developed over time, from its initial inspiration through each of its iterations as physical / electronic artwork(s), and through presentation and interaction with the public as it was exhibited, including posters, press releases and documentation as well as the public reaction, including documentation and reviews. And they were not created one at a time; all have been ongoing, they are active during contemporary work-sessions, and pieces are conceptually categorized within them as they are fabricated.
PLEASE NOTE: page and links are in ongoing development, so please revisit them periodically.
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