Abigail Rothman

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Abigail Rothman (Maplewood, NJ) is a multidisciplinary artist and activist exploring subversion. Her work challenges and critiques tradition within society, art history, and its political and social manifestations. Through digital and physical abstraction pre-existing content is removed from its’ original context, existing as objects and realities the viewer must confront.  Acknowledging and altering the relationship between people and these scenarios confronts the conventional understanding and priorities of traditional art making processes. In turn, questioning the social transparency and accessibility of knowledge as a reflection of extreme political and social hierarchies. 

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Operation Ribbon Room (Working Title) | Abigail Rothman
Operation Ribbon Room (Working Title) | Abigail Rothman

Operation Ribbon Room (working title) serves as an act of restoration as well as transformation for a space hosting a variety of previous works in addition to Sylvia’s own interactions with the materials in the expanse. The curative effort put into this room is meant to reinvigorate the works living there as well as to better allow visitors to engage with the space as a whole. The ribbon pile suspends from the ceiling making space for furniture for some of the puppets to live on. Visitors to the space are invited to continue the transformation by tying additional ribbons to the hanging mass or untying them and rolling them up to place in the other piece. Ribbons tied up could represent hopes, dreams, wishes or goals. Ribbons rolled up serve as a physical representation of hardship left behind, allowing individuals to move forward. Overall the room is reimagined so that there are more ways to interact with the works and the building. An exploration of restoration and care for a space that has been touched by the hands of many generations, only to continue going forward.

Interstitial | Abigail Rothman
Interstitial | Abigail Rothman

Abigail Rothman (Jersey City, NJ) | November 2021

"Interstitial is an exploration of interstitial time and its manifestations informed by personal experience and self reflection. Participants were invited to contribute their own moments between moments, which could then be written out on handmade paper created from various materials throughout the collection (paper, wood, textile, hair, dust, sawdust, rainwater, dirt). Submissions are then folded and sealed with wax.

Elsewhere as an architectural structure becomes personified. The scars and tattoos litter the building serving as evidence of life lived in a building well loved and well hated. A history we can’t know entirely. This piece serves as an acknowledgement of the history a space holds and how it mingles with each personal history of every resident, intern, staff member and museum visitor. These physical responses then fill this metaphorical and physical void, allowing our personal experiences to mix with the history of this building, Greensboro and each other."

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