BIO
Sidney Whipps is a ceramic artist based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is currently a senior Fine Arts student at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP Program. Sidney’s curiosity stems from our evolving relationship with communication devices and how that relationship influences our society. Sidney's work has been shown in several group exhibitions in the Ohio Valley.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores the changing relationship people, especially women, have with communication devices, through industrialization and commercialization. Over time, our idea of communication has changed. Phones have evolved from a direct line where you interact with one voice to an endless stream of entertainment and distraction. Communication has become more than a mere conversation; apps and social media sell us ideas of who we are and what we want, and modulate how we interact with our friends, loved ones, and complete strangers. We post about ourselves only to be a mere fragment of data that will be preserved on an app for people to see who we are online. Now, women can communicate through more than just a phone call; they can express how they feel on a global stage. How has this new way of communicating digitally changed how we express ourselves? How might this actually change our identity?
As a member of Generation Z, I have increasingly noticed that we are completely overtaken by our devices. We grew up alongside this technology, and in many ways we have evolved together. I have so many memories of the first time I used a string telephone device and walkie-talkies. Now, the ubiquity of instantaneous communication through our phones has left us unfazed by limitless ideas of growth and completely dependent on technology to navigate daily life. I remember the novelty of apps like Snapchat, where you can communicate through pictures, and how important it was to an average teenager like me to use it every day because it was a trend. Now, there is a rebellion beginning, staying off our phones and having time limits on apps is becoming a survival strategy for my generation. We find ourselves seeking convenience rather than having to work towards something because our devices co-opt so much of our thought process and offer easy options to streamline productivity.
I use clay as a way to challenge the mass production of communication. Clay has qualities of permanence that mimic the way technology has become indefinite to us in its presence. I create environments of figurative sculptures that express the diverse history of communication styles in individual ways. My practice heavily revolves around using mold making as a tool to discuss the mass production of communication devices. The tradition and rich history of ceramics allows me to push the boundaries of a "slow" medium to explore the increasingly fast and fleeting pace of modern communication.
We experience this life as only a mere fragment of molecules, and we are only here for a moment on the scale of deep time. Working with a material that will endure long after we are gone mimics the insidious nature of our devices. They will never disintegrate; they have completely eclipsed our lives and forever changed how we interact with one another. Devices have altered our trajectory as humans in ways we may not be able to fully see and understand. Working with archival materials like clay makes these shifts in our communications and consciousness tangible and preserves them for an unknown future.