Sasha Fishman
Bio: Sasha Fishman is a sculptor and researcher, born in Baltimore, MD and based in New York. Fishman has exhibited her work at Below Grand (New York), Resort (Baltimore), Hesse Flatow (New York), Bozomag (Los Angeles), The Jewish Museum (New York), and The Indian Ceramics Triennale (New Delhi, India) among others. She has presented her work and run workshops at Printed Matter (New York), Genspace (New York), Navel (Los Angeles), UCLA (Los Angeles), UDenver (Colorado), UColorado Boulder (Colorado), Kenyon College (Ohio), MICA (Maryland), Caltech (California), and CSULB (California). During her time at Columbia she collaborated with labs on projects involving fountains, carbon capture materials, and cuttlefish.
Instagram: @dangerouswhenwet
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: In my practice, I explore intersections of material histories, scientific inquiry, and fringe beliefs. Through sculpture, video, and aquatic organism research, I investigate intelligence embedded in extractive infrastructure from both scientific and pseudoscientific perspectives. My prac- tice generates a rheology - the study of the flow of matter - which emerges through my engagement with scientists, environmental conservation industries, water systems, and formulating living, ephemeral, and synthetic materials.
Fluctuating in appearance between solid and liquid, resin has been the primary material throughout my practice, but its toxicity resulted in my exploration into bioma- terials. Shifting towards self-formulating materials has empowered me to dictate sculptural properties and prompted a broader exploration into material implications: history, collection, disposal, supply chains, life cycles, and ethics.
Currently, my research delves into the eth- ics of working with living organisms and the limitations of scientific instruments in understanding their experiences. Specifi- cally looking at human intervention in col- lapsing ecosystems, specifically salmon, and how prediction methods and histori- cal events justify implemented conserva- tion efforts. Through exchanges with local salmon hatcheries, a salmon smokery, scientists, and water conservationists, this work questions the limitations of our comfort with ephemerality across materi- als, industries, and environments. These material investigations, extractions and cultivations are part of my perpetual, and potentially futile exploration.
Sasha Fishman
I want to be wet, 2024
Douglas Fir, shellac, beer, salt, dried fish collagen, marshmallow, salmon eggs, glycerin, salmon scales, tanned salmon skin, egg yolk, Dawn, monitors, media players, speakers, beeswax thread; 8 channel video, color, sound
Fabrication support: Kenny Sale, Carol Yuan, Lolo Derderer and Ray Barsante
Filmed by Kenny Sale, Matthew Genecov, and Sasha Fishman
Sound by Miles Scharff and Sasha Fishman
&
Just Spawned, 2024
Inkjet print
Courtesy of the artist
&
If you trap me in resin will I ever dry out, 2024
Copper flashing, resin encapsulated chemically cleared and manually spawned salmon, plexi-glass, LED
Sourcing: Salmon donated from the Salmon River Fish
HatcheryLab Support: Campos Lab
Courtesy of the artist
First Year Exhibition
Sasha Fishman
Hearing for Dryness Longing for Wetness, 2023
Glass syringes, solder, nickel, vinyl tubing, spirulina, steel, cable, PLA, resin, ceramic, tin, copper, mesh for wildlife control, uranium glass, paper pulp, flour, corn starch, PVA, test tiles, photographys of water, sounds from a fountain to be
32" x 81" x 81"
Courtesy the artist
