About these works:
The kudzu vine was imported from Japan in the 1950s and widely planted along highways in an attempt to prevent erosion. It grew so well that it quickly took over vast swaths of the southern landscape, covering all in its path – houses, trees, roads... I decided to work with kudzu, a material both maligned and plentiful, while on a residency in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. I struggled with the vines – an uncomfortable balance of working intuitively and being thwarted at every turn trying first to fashion the vines into a swing (daily rains dampened that plan) then a shelter. Finally, I decided to wear my struggles and refigured the woven vines into a dress. Thus robed, and with a kudzu crown, I became the Exiled Queen of Kudzu, unwanted and uncomfortable, and toured the grounds of Hambidge before casting the dress off into the woods. Kudzu cells, featured here, is the one piece saved from that experience.
Séance is made from old cardboard boxes and scraps. It is configured differently each time it is shown as the piece continues to evolve. Making the piece grows from the studio ritual of centering myself by painting concentric circles on a scrap of cardboard until I hit the edge of the sheet and then I cut the shape out so that it resembles a cross-section of a tree ring.In this time of mail-order everything with its promise of instant gratification, cardboard spills out everywhere. My use of it is a deliberate choice to do my small part to staunch the flow and turnby-product into art. Séance is also my attempt to call forth cardboard’s origin as a tree. The bird heads also wanted to be called forth and remembered.
Meanwhlile (small worlds, tall tales) – is a microcosm of my studio walls. It consists of ever-shifting collections of picked-up, made, found, written and photographed things.I am drawn to the humble, the quiet and the overlooked; to the wonder that is available to us that whispers not shouts. Mostly, I yearn to connect with the animate, more-than-human world that can be hard to see in an urban environment but is always present no matter how quiet. Through my interventions of painting, cutting, weaving, drawing, sewing... small worlds are created – stories emerge, and thoughts dance across the surface in an ever-shifting response to each other within the larger world.
These birds are made from coffee cup sleeves. I started collecting them in the pandemic when I was no longer able to bring my own coffee mug to the localcafé to fill. The sleeves started accumulating and I turned them into a flock of birds.
Alice Momm 2026
Alice Momm is an urban artist whose practice grows from her longing to reconnect with the more than-human living world. Materials are met on walks: with picked-up things, written thoughts, snapped photos. Momm is drawn to the tension of working with fragile materials to bring them into the sphere of art. The collections in her studio are sewn, cut, woven, painted, collaged and photographed as she connects with the "beingness" of each thing. Faces emerge from bark shards, weavings are created from studio scraps, a flock of birds grows from old coffee cup sleeves, worlds are born and changed. Outdoors, Momm creates large environmental sculptures and performative collaborations. "Interlude for Millay," her evolving large-scale piece, incorporates a meadow, gleaned and sown plants, and Momm in the middle weaving it all together, responding to growth, decay, shifting light and changing seasons. All Momm's works encourage a deeper connection with the natural world. It is how she meets climate grief with love.