The word, pause, provides the conceptual frame for my art. I want my viewers to suspend their daily lives, to take a momentary vacation from the busy world, in order to become more aware of life’s significant parts and to reconsider their role as individuals in a rapidly changing world.

For the past thirteen years, my multimedia projects, combining performance, drawing, sculpture, architecture, installation, craft, fashion and urban design, have provided these suspended moments in diverse locations such as city streets, public buildings and parks, abandoned commercial spaces, community and commercial galleries, regional art centers, and contemporary museums.

Why do I create art that crosses media boundaries?  It fits. It’s also the way I experienced the world growing up. As the child of a museum professional, I literally grew up in the museum where my father worked. There I learned about philosophy, world history, and the triumph and tragedy of civilizations through the blending of art forms that were exhibited in the museum.

My most recent projects, emerging from my despair at the state of contemporary society, investigate themes of urban revitalization and civil liberties. I have come to believe that it might only be when we feel the painful reality of our responsibility in environmental and human rights disasters—not turn a blind eye—that we will be inspired to act and change course. I believe that art can play an instigating role.

Julia Mandle