Artist Profile: Brooke Hine

Brooke Hine, a ceramic sculptor and installation artist living in Philadelphia, holds a B.F.A. from Siena Heights University and an M.F.A from Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduating from VCU she moved to Philly to continue her ceramic career.  

Why did you move you Philly?

I thought about moving to New York City after graduate school where most of my colleagues moved to start their careers. When I visited Philadelphia in 2003 I noticed that the city had a close network of artists, making it a strong community for ceramicists.  I didn’t know artists in Philly, but once I moved here I started working in a studio building called 915Art. The building, located on Percy Street, is connected to the old Pennsylvania Railroad tracks off of Spring Garden Street. It has 80-100 artists and has been studios for more than 30 years. This allowed me to network with artists in Philly and to find beneficial information about strong centered artist organizations.

Have you found Philly to be a nurturing place as an artist?

The door literally opened for me when I became involved with Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST). This event has made it possible for the public to visit my studio for the past three years. Because of this experience I started to build a connection with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. CFEVA has been a major supporter, giving me opportunities to meet artists, curators, and gallery representatives. I’m completely satisfied with my move to Philadelphia; I’ve met amazing people who are willing to connect artists with opportunities and I want to do the same for others.

Your work tends to strip natural objects and processes down to their most basic form and expression, evoking a new perspective on the object’s inherent spiritual nature. Have you purposefully developed this style or has it been a natural progression emerging from your psyche? In what direction do you see your working going in the future?

My previous fossil-like installation is a broken down representation of my newest sculptures. They are now both fleshy and deteriorated representations of aquatic and biomorphic objects. I’ve always experimented with the tactile nature of clay, recreating a surface that is representational of the skin’s surface, looking both smooth and rigid. I would like the viewer to find a connection with these organisms from both above and below sea level. All of my work is spontaneous and my style has developed naturally from working with this malleable material. In the future I would like to see my work in a large mass, crawling around urban architecture. My most recent visit to the Eastern State Penitentiary has encouraged the idea of proposing my work within this environment. The decay and deterioration of this historic building calls for my installations to flow through the space.

Tell me about the show your curating for CFEVA.

The exhibition will be a celebration of evolution above and below seal level, in decaying urban neighborhoods, inside our bodies and details that surround individuals throughout their daily lives. I have brought this group of work together to express multiple representations of growth and change, two themes which I believe are at the heart of the work that CFEVA does. Celebrating Growth and Change: The 25th Anniversary Exhibition, running from March 10th to April 4th next year, will allow the Philadelphia community to celebrate the accomplishments and growth of a non-profit artists organization, showcase new and emerging talents in the art world and present new perspectives on change and growth.

Original Interview can be found here: http://www.uwishunu.com/2008/01/artist-profiles-brooke-hine/