Q&A with Samantha Neu

Briefly describe your thesis project.
Questioning my own corporeal anxieties, my work explores the various facets of being a material body — erotic, intimate, grotesque, fragile, transient, humorous. My thesis project, Homesick, is a massive carved sculpture that resembles a tongue extending out like a slide from an arched base. The sculpture’s organic folds and pink color suggest something bodily, possibly an interior canal that has been exposed. This piece is a continuation of my series of large-scale sculptures made from sheets of insulation foam that are glued together and then arduously carved with angle grinders, saws, and X-Acto knives. Homesick implies body through its organic form, and at ten feet long, six feet wide, and seven feet tall, the large form suggests the body by eliciting an interaction. The viewer imagines climbing on the form, but they are denied this experience. They become aware of their physical relationship to the piece through this tension. 

What do you hope someone feels when they experience your work?
I hope the viewer feels an unease from the uncanny experience of encountering my bodily forms which feel familiar, but don’t offer a definitive answer as to what they are. This ambiguity leaves space for the viewer to experience and interpret their associations and question their judgments.  

Are there any questions you hope to answer by creating this project?     Much of my work suggests the body through scale and form. I’ve been thinking about how, as an artist, I can attempt to choreograph the viewer’s movement around a piece as a tool for fostering an encounter. While the viewer is not allowed to touch this sculpture, there is an imagined gesture. They can think of how their body would climb or slide on the sculpture, drawing awareness to their body’s presence in this experience. I’m curious how they will relate to this sculpture’s more architectural form in comparison to my more humanoid work in the past. 

What was your path to becoming an artist like?   My senior year of high school I lived with my aunt in Santa Barbara, California, and enrolled in the public school’s visual art and design academy. This was the first time I discovered a career in the arts as a possibility, as more than just a technical hobby to learn. The program surrounded me with creative peers, and I was fortunate to visit art institutions in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In addition to the art I visited, I was inspired by the bizarre works in my aunt’s art collection. In her small office, there was a giant painting of a circus performer standing on a ball surrounded by embryos strung to her body. I learned that art didn’t have to be just pretty objects, but it had the potential to be charged with emotion and convey psychological states. 

Why did you choose to go to graduate school at WashU? 
When I visited WashU I was sold on my potential cohort and the chair of the MFA-VA program, Lisa Bulawsky. They all were down-to-earth and welcoming. You could tell they would be supportive through the program, and the current students emphasized the graduate faculty’s accessibility. I also knew I wanted to attend a school that offered classes outside of just art. While here, I have taken creative writing, archaeology, and gender studies classes, all of which have influenced my work. St. Louis was a selling point with its parks, public programs, and amazing art institutions. It is a city I can see myself staying in after graduation.