W/hole

Annie Varnot

Annie Boyden Varnot transforms everyday materials into sculptures and installations that, among other things, explore the balance between health and disease, life and death. Using the egg as a metaphor for the fragility of life in the wake of her breast cancer diagnosis, the artist created W/hole, an installation made of hundreds of hollowed chicken eggs and plaster. The bodily references evoked by the sculptural pieces are reinforced by the accompanying videos’ focus on handling and draining the eggs. Although the work was inspired by her traumatic personal experience, she hopes that for others, W/hole offers "a poetic suggestion of life and death while also referencing the here and now."

Varnot is a Visiting Artist in the School of Art's Visiting Artist residency program. For the last week of her exhibition, Varnot will remove W/hole to install work created during her time at Illinois State University.

Varnot's work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Baltimore, and Mandelieu-La Napoule, France. She has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Change Inc., and Artists’ Fellowship Inc. Varnot has received residency fellowships from the Jentel Artist Residency Program, Camargo Foundation, Weir Farm Artist-in-Residence Program, La Napoule Art Foundation, and Headlands Center for the Arts. She received her MFA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her B.S. from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.