Born in Barre Massachusetts, interdisciplinary sculptor Annie Varnot has served as a visiting fellow at numerous foundations including Jentel in Wyoming, La Napoule Art Foundation in France, Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in Nova Scotia, the Islip Art Museum in New York, and Weir Farm in Connecticut. She has been the recipient of several grants including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Ms. Varnot's drawings may be viewed at Pierogi 2000 in Brooklyn, NY. She is a select member of the Drawing Center Viewing Program. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Her artistic practice is characterized by an unconventional use of nontraditional materials accumulating into sculptures and installations. Often the choice of material as well as the process of making is significant to the content of the work. Although sculptural in form, her work is influenced by background in drawing and painting, and often uses these practices too.
Oh Varian Sea , 2011,12’ x 9’ x 10’, Plastic drinking straws, mixed media
The prerequisites of what constitutes a utopian art is evident and elaborated in Annie Varnot’s ‘oh varian sea’, the artist fused brightly coloured green straws alongside with pvc pipes and multi coloured wires together to create this imaginary scientific landscape. The landscape merges the discarded physical realities of consumerist culture with the emotional connection to land. While referencing nature in dual states of idealism and destruction. The bright colours and unique assemblage of the materials reminds its viewers of a blooming spring garden at the peak of its growth cycle with overgrowing foilages and excessive greens. The idea of growth and abundance serves as the intimation of a ‘better place’. Whereas on closer look, we might realize the synthesized materials that varnot uses in her works are few of the many symbols of industrialization and consumer culture that has taken its toll on the natural landscape.
Fire Fungus Bluff, 2011, Plastic drinking straw, pearler beads and pizza ring, 12.7 x 40.6 x 10.1cm
In this organic sculpture fire fungus bluff, the artist arranged the cut straws into their analogous colour group and created a platform that protrudes from the surface of the wall. Due to the way she has arranged the straws together, they created an interesting silhouette beneath the sculpture. Creating a visual illusion, as though the sculpture was being suspended in the air.
