Material Witness:
The art of
Pamela DeTuncq

-Tony Evans

What if the images and objects we see and touch each day could magically juxtapose themselves into relationships with one another, like words in a sentence, telling secret stories from the landscape of our imagination?  

Conceptual artist Pamela DeTuncq spent years in the design industry, and working within the constraints of hand-built ceramic and bronze sculpture, before turning her gaze upon some of the more compelling zeitgeists of contemporary American culture. Today she applies the technical expertise acquired while creating highly refined abstract sculptural motifs to her multi-layered and often sublime installations, treating such disparate themes as teen alienation, the dissolution of gender stereotypes, and the vicissitudes of faith. Her art amuses as much as it provokes, existing in a borderland between sly social commentary and personal whimsy.

“My interest lies now in those things near to me, both physically and emotionally. I am finding that the observations made in my own backyard are the most universal.”

As visually compelling as her work is upon first viewing, a deeper appreciation comes from an understanding of the symbolic significance of her chosen materials. She appropriates cultural iconography with everyday materials; eggshells, wool, bread dough, and toy soldiers, but these objects have a mythic consequence within her meticulously conceived work. Take for instance the eggshells in “June,” an installation built for an exhibition at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. This piece casts a backward glance upon 1950s female gender stereotypes. A carpet made of thousands of fragments of dyed eggshells depicts the actress Barbara Billingsley's publicity photograph as June Cleaver, the matriarch of the television show “Leave it to Beaver.” A vacuum cleaner, the quintessential accoutrement of domesticity, devours the iconic and dated image of the American feminine ideal. Are we walking on eggshells along with the fragile image of June Cleaver, or beholding the ephemeral, yet regenerative essence of fertility, before it is Hoovered away into the dust bin of history? Eggshells have a story all their own here, as do many other materials DeTuncq employs in her increasingly narrative work.

“There is a dance between subject, material, and object, that when executed in balance with one another, imparts a whole that is greater than its parts.”

Flock is an ironic and finely crafted installation that depicts six ghost-like teens engaged in their communication method of choice – texting. 

“These kids are searching for self at a time when the word ‘identity’ no longer means what it did a generation ago. They have many layers of communication and perhaps they have found new havens, away from adolescent awkwardness.”

DeTuncq shows how cell phones have internalized the adolescent rite of passage, providing an impersonal method for communicating very personal information.

It is now commonplace to see digital natives like these wearing hoodies and connected to their peers moment-to-moment, while seemingly tuning out the world around them. Cast from actual teens and holding real cell phones, the clothing on these sculptures is made of needle-felted wool, the oldest of fiber-craft traditions and the antithesis of modern technology. The sound of cell phone beeps emanate from the piece, like the bleating of sheep, triggering viewers to check their own cell phones for calls. 

“These kids are searching for self at a time when the word ‘identity’ no longer means what it did a generation ago. They have many layers of communication and perhaps they have found new havens, away from adolescent awkwardness.”

DeTuncq’s “40 days and 40 nights,” is a poignant and comical survey of many facets of belief. Taking the Christian Cross as a symbol of religion, DeTuncq transfigures it into 40 unique articles of faith. “iGod” is made of computer keys, “Guide Me” of road sign fragments, and “Sodom and Gomorrah” of salt shakers. “God Bless America” is a cross, made from tiny green plastic toy soldiers wound together as though on a sacrificial altar.

DeTuncq has simultaneously broadened, amplified, and ultimately defused, the highly-charged topic of Christian dogma and literalism with these maquettes, each of which would hold its own on a larger scale. The entire collection displays the diversity if ideas, and the mastery of materials that supports DeTuncq’s abundant inspiration.

“I am a maker. I like to get my hands dirty. I like paintbrushes and power tools and the smell of paint, sawdust and warm encaustic medium. When other teenagers were asking for record albums for their birthdays, I was hoping for an electric drill with polishing bits, a soldering iron, or perhaps a propane torch.”

DeTuncq's artwork begins with an emotional quandary, which then develops into a series of ideas, finally finding a tangible home in personal artifacts, found objects and other available stimuli. Her planned piece on aging will incorporate into an installation about mortality, clusters of keys, a walker, amber resin and an online life--expectancy test.

This latest piece will reach once again from the personal to the universal; DeTuncq’s artistic process has led her to be more mindful of the ephemeral nature of existence. Thankfully, artists like DeTuncq have a way of working magic with everyday stuff, to fix in time and place what matters most about the world around us.