Fragility and Impermanence by Lori Illner Greene

Matter breaking down. Energy slowly disbursing.
Initiating a recovery of energy and materials
back into a life cycle we all share
to be transformed and repurposed again and again.

In her artist statement Greene say, "Speculating about my place in the universe, I’ve developed studio work reflecting my personal cosmology on the relationship of energy, matter, and its change over time. The same force that fuels the planets, also powers our hearts and is the energy that forms matter. Animals, plants, fungi and inanimate material of every shape and form – we are made of the same elements and share a fundamental energy. Yet all matter breaks down in time, fueling a new iteration with a transfer of energy and repurposing of materials. This work believes in an invisible energetic connection of all things and is a fantastical interpretation of what it might look like.

The process for articulating my thoughts often begins on walks, with found natural objects making their way into my pocket for later contemplation. The broken, tumbled, torn and decaying are all represented in sculptural work developed back in the studio. I create fragile sculptures in a variety of sizes formed papier Mache ‘like from rice wrapper and glue. Those little bits collected from my wanderings inform the rest of the sculpture built to surround, cradle, or suggest an energetic flow or movement. The resulting piece initiates a new life cycle. Using the material to develop the sculptures feels collaborative. I can only take it so far, while the drying down process takes it further and initiates “more” – the final hardened twists and curves. The organic quality ensuring eventual breakdown is important, yet poignant as I try to preserve them in some way.

These sculptures were lit, photographed & videoed in response to questions and limitations I was confronting at the time. The lit imagery provided a new way for me to encounter the sculptures and recognize thru lines with the mark making and conceptual work I have previously engaged with. Glass prints provide a record the sculptural nature of the subject, and a snapshot through my lens of a possible energy flow associated with matter releasing its energy. Silk prints reinforce an idea of movement as the fabric interacts with unseen air currents now seen in the resulting undulations.

This work exists for me as a potential memory of a moment that might have happened. What it would look like if we could just see energy released as life ends or as matter breaks down. It is a proposition of flow and movement, and a fundamental connection. This body of work is ultimately about our collective impermanence.
And the residue left behind."

As an artist, Lori Illner Greene explores ideas of fragility through figurative sculpture, pastels and encaustic painting. Her work is informed by ideas of energetic connections associated with particle physics. She often utilizes the technique of paper mâché like assemblage to create sculptures that become the subject of her photographic imagery, drawings, and paintings.

Attending Mundelein College (Loyola University) 1987-91, she graduated with a bachelor’s in history, minoring in art and biology. Returning to study both art history and studio art she attended Waubonsee from 2003-2007. Illner Greene enrolled in Sierra Nevada University (University of Nevada) in 2020 and graduated with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in December, 2022. Her art education bookends and punctuates a 32+ year career spanning GPS and agribusiness consulting, information systems design, historical building renovations and Inn proprietorship, and her current role as Executive Director of the Fort Madison (Iowa) Art Center.