Amra Causevic

Amra Causevic on her practice

Since the studios have been locked down, I wasn’t able to make as much. I had some materials that I was able to bring home. There, I was sewing a tapestry that I’m still in process of making. I continued making what I had before the lockdown, although everything has, like my mental perspective, shifted quite a bit.

Now I’m trying merge my old self to my new self.

A lot of my work is interactive and touch base and often times I ask people to interact with my sculptures and installations.

I think it’s about community and building empathy.

One part of the work is an installation called ‘data.’ They’re basically objects that I have collected, or were given to me, or that I had found in the street. I saw these objects grouped together with text, in form of jokes, puns, poetry, and quick associations. It is through this arrangement, I realize my understanding the world, and how I discover the little moments of every day. They’re sort of like residues of the the ‘now’ strata. Maybe in my next life I’ll be an archaeologist who comes across to uncover them.

I enjoy interacting with architecture, for me, exploring the city, I find that I become a child, because I find these curiosities in various places. And I think I’m trying to bring that out into the world because I essentially just want everybody to be curious.

Then there is an architectural model that I built based on my desire to build my own home. A part of my work is biographical in nature, in a sense that I was born in Bosnia and there was a war, and so my family and I migrated all over the place and finally came to the United States. So as an adult, I’m constantly thinking about what it means to move but also leaving your possessions behind, and then to think about materiality. What is this stuff, and what is a home, and what are these tangible things?