Louise Coupar-Stamat's Projects

MFA Student

Major: Ceramics

Graduation Year: 2017

Artist Statement:

My respect and concern for the world and its creatures situates my work and practice within a context that connects to environmental domination and anthropocentric destruction. My art offers connections to nature and speaks for the ones without voices. Through the creation of ceramic objects and performative acts, I seek to awaken humanity to the dualisms of nature and culture as wells as women and culture.
Performativity channels the personal as a means to connect art and life. While connecting to the realities of my own experience as a woman, I embody the metaphorical and symbolic beings of ancient myth. Although the authenticity of this piece comes from a woman’s experience within a patriarchy, my work does not exclude. Becoming one with the earthly material of clay breaks the boundaries of humans and nature.
My concepts of rebirth and transformation are inspired specifically from the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. Through the enactment of a rebirth, the walls between dichotomies are broken. In the performance titled Seed, a stratified woman, the artist embodies the goddess Persephone as she is buried in the earth. The collaborator represents Demeter gradually aiding the artist’s construction. Barriers between two females are built as the artist is concealed and alienated from the audience. Breaking these metaphorical walls of self and society evokes a sense of empowerment and connection.

Biography:

Louise Coupar-Stamat was born in Glasgow, Scotland and currently lives and works in Connecticut. In 2009, she received a B.S. in Art Education specializing in Ceramics from Central Connecticut State University where she also achieved a M.S. in Secondary Educational Studies in 2015. Stamat is now working towards a MFA from Maine College of Art. Her work has been showcased in numerous juried exhibitions including her most recent showing at the Knockdown Center in Queens, NY. The Nasty Women Exhibition showcased works from around the nation as a global art movement to demonstrate solidarity and resistance in the face of threats to roll back women’s rights.