ALEX HODGE
REPRESENTED ARTIST
Alex Hodge was always drawn to the arts and regularly channeled her creativity as a child whether in watercolor classes or scrapbooking with her mother. She attended the University of Georgia and received her BFA in Ceramics in order to learn the ways of coaxing clay. While at UGA, Hodge had her first solo exhibition, Unsung Muses, in addition to her BFA show, Eyes That Bind. She graduated summa cum laude along with other honors, such as the Outstanding Undergraduate Award and Mary Rosenblatt Scholarship. After graduation, she spent the summer as the Ceramics Instructor for URJ Camp Coleman, where she realized her potential as a teacher. She then pursued her MFA at the University of Miami, where she has received the MFA Summer Fellowship as well as the William Oberman Award. She will graduate summa cum laude after the conclusion of her thesis exhibition In Light of Her. She continues to pursue teaching as the Camp Manager and Instructor for Clay Camp at the Ceramic League of Miami and as an adjunct faculty at the University of Miami. Though she naturally finds a place in teaching, it is her studio work that is the driving force of her existence.
ARTWORKS
Behind Closed Doors Series
In this new series of wall plates, Behind Closed Doors, I reimagine source imagery from a book titled In Praise of the Backside. The book’s collection features women from behind, as captured most often by men, frequently untitled and anonymous. In my reinterpretation of these images, the women transcend their status as objects of line and shade, to become subjects with emotion, thought and a place of belonging.
Sculptural Jar Series
Porcelain Plates Collection
Her poetic porcelain plates examine and reimagine the history of art in a way that values women, not only in body, but in wholeness, power, and love. Focusing on the narrative qualities of art-making, Hodge weaves stories into the clay which are both personal and universal.
In light of her
The three series that make up my thesis show all center around the woman as an art historical trope who becomes a contemporary archetype of tenderness and tenacity with her own narrative. The tradition of the woman as muse or object is questioned and turned upside down as I give my women the position of subject, i.e. the position of power. The jars which uphold pairs of women are the ultimate overturn of male dominance as I remove and replace all male characters from famous artworks with women. The couples care for one another and are so consumed in their connection that the viewer is ignored. They do not exist for the viewer’s fantasy because their desires are already filled. Through these three bodies of work, I create archival objects which combine to build a narrative of women’s power, based on the Love Ethic, as discussed by bell hooks in her book, All About Love. Further, notions of power are investigated in tandem with Mary Follett’s writings on power, which delineate Western conception as power-over, and the feminist ideal as power-with.
Unsung Muses Series
Unsung Muses is a group of large scale vessels, wall pieces and small sculptures which comprised a solo exhibition at the University of Georgia's School of Art in October of 2015. The works were accompanied by the following excerpt from an Adrienne Rich poem titled "Transcendental Etude." But in fact we were always like this, rootless, dismembered: knowing it makes the difference. Birth stripped our birthright from us, tore us from a woman, from women, from ourselves so early on and the whole chorus throbbing at our ears like midges, told us nothing, nothing of origins, nothing we needed to know, nothing that could re-member us.
Fragments of Our Love Story Series
The lady cups reference the ancient tradition of feminine totems and goddess figures with their plump bellies and wide hips. In contrast to contemporary beauty ideals, these figures demonstrate the capacity for life and abundance that used to be celebrated. By covering large sections of their forms with my own poetic text, I fill them with a narrative of love, each poem spilling from one cup to the next. The continuity across feminine forms reflects the way that women’s stories are often fragmented by culture and time.
