installing Vessels
Stephanie Imbeau received her MFA from Newcastle University in 2007 and a BFA from The Ohio State University in 2004. Her ambitious outdoor umbrella installations have been staged all around the world; including her competition-winning piece for Channel 4, Shelter, staged in London (2009), as well as for Cannes Lions Festival; the Light City festival in Baltimore, MD; and WAVE Light + Water + Sound festival in Breckenridge, CO. In addition to her largescale installations, her sewn drawings and ceramic work has been exhibited in Germany, France, England, Greece, and the United States. Imbeau has been awarded a number of residencies around the world, including her recent residency in September 2019 with The Arctic Circle in Svalbard.
with Untitled (Cover/Uncover 9)
photo: Patrick Kolts
Her practice investigates the way individuals seek community, personal security and a place to belong. She uses representations of protective structures as anthropomorphisms to explore this universal human impulse. These basic forms of shelter also provide the framework for a conceptual mapping of the barriers drawn to create safety and claim meaning using physical spaces. The simple outline of a house, for example, is both a boundary and a claim, “I am here” – with walls and a roof. She uses a variety of mediums with a specific interest in materials that posses the opposing qualities of utility and fragility, such as clay, cardboard and umbrellas.