Variations of the following work are available for exhibition.
- RISING Guardians, collection of mixed-medium sculptures
- 6-10 large forms, hand-looped raffia, branches, roots, wire (largest 4’x4’x7.5’h)
- 3 medium sculptures (largest 4’x3’x4’h)
- RISING, Short Film, 10 minutes, featuring original art, music, and dance collaboration
- Can be projected and looped in a gallery
- Can be shown on a smaller monitor on demand
- Can pop-up through QR codes on phones
- Can be shown on a digital theater screen.
- Can be projected in a theater, and followed up with a 30-45 minute artist talk and Q&A with director Tiffany Besonen
- RESPONSE, Wall of Artifacts, variable dimensions on 1-3 walls
- 20-30 small and medium sculptural forms
- Branches, stones, artist’s own hair, roots, driftwood, paper pulp on wire mesh
- Finger-looped raffia, artist-designed fabric, felted wool and dog fur, air dry clay
- Wire and repurposed metal, vintage wooden boxes, sewing pattern paper, repurposed shredded tires pieces
- RISING Panels, 6-10 2’x6′ painted and collaged photo panel stills from the short film
rising guardians
Click on an image to enlarge and scroll through gallery of images.
Rural Minnesota artist Tiffany Besonen is fascinated with how sculpture, dance, and film move through real space, and can help us rise above or make sense of chaos. In 2020 and 2021, Tiffany Besonen created a series of 5-7′ tall abstracted, mixed-media “guardian” forms by finger-looping raffia over branch and wire armature. Half of these forms are serene and angelic, the other half are feral and animated. All of these forms serve as guides and guardians for the heroine in the short film RISING. While these works make a great stand alone display, combined with the short film and painted panels below the entire RISING collection works well together in a large space or adjoining gallery spaces.
RISING Short film
RISING, a 10 minute short film, follows a heroine from isolation into exploring a mysterious place where she battles obstacles and finds empowerment. RISING features the collaboration of rural Minnesota artists: sculptures, film direction, writing, and editing by Tiffany Besonen, directing consultation by Julie Kjenaas, original musical score by Damian D. Anderson, videography by Rob Whiteside, writing and choreography by Anika Campbell, dance by Anika Campbell, Emily Bradt, and Autumn Moe. RISING was filmed in rural Wadena and Hubbard counties in Minnesota.
The short film RISING has been submitted to film festivals for Fall 2022 and Winter 2023.
rESPONSE, WALL OF ARTIFACTS
The ever-growing WALL OF ARTIFACTS is an arrangement of sculptural experiments and responses. Click on an image to enlarge and scroll through gallery of images.
“I see my work as an organic outgrowth of experiments and responses. I’ve been told that my work is about energy and I agree. I respond to the energies of movement, forces of nature, and our social/psychological connections and disconnections. Sculpture is both a feral and meditative process for me. It is feral as I form and experiment with branches, my own hair, air dry clay, and other materials. Then, my process is meditative as I fall into the repetition of finger-looping raffia or hand-felting wool or dog’s fur into forms. Later, like in the ‘Wall of Artifacts,’ I make sense of the chaos by arranging and connecting forms in space to create a narrative.” Tiffany Besonen
rising panels
Click on an image to enlarge and scroll through gallery of images.
As responses to the Guardian sculptures and the RISING short film, the RISING Panels each began with a 2’x6′ printed photo still from the film. Onto each large photo banner surface, Tiffany Besonen added gestural and biomorphic imagery with pastels, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and collaged paper & fabric.
This body of work was funded in part by a grant from the Five Wings Arts Council with funds provided by the McKnight Foundation.
Tiffany Besonen is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature.
T Besonen Art 