Catherine Wagner is the winner of the Abigail Cohen Rome Prize in Design, a Professor in the Department of Art at Mills College, and a Visual Artist who resides in San Francisco.
What part of the United States did you come from?
I was born and raised in San Francisco. My mother was born in Manila, the Philippines, and my father in Frankfurt, Germany, so I am a first-generation US citizen.
I grew up on the west coast of California but traveled extensively through Asia as a child.
Why did you apply for the Rome Prize?
I am a practicing artist as well as a professor of art at the Mills College graduate MFA program and between these two engagements I was looking for a period of time where I could think substantively. I wanted to be displaced from my normal studio routine in the United States to continue a line of questioning and thinking that would further my interests. I was nominated for the Rome Prize and felt it would be the perfect opportunity, so I applied. I am constantly interacting with history and how knowledge transfers from one generation to the next. Rome is a city where people can truly live within ancient and contemporary interaction.
Describe a particularly inspiring moment or location you've experienced in Rome thus far.
I was taken with the minimal installation of the Palazzo Altemps. Here I experienced classical statues, two or three to a room, which allowed for a very intimate experience. There is a beautiful mix between natural and museum lighting that is not overly dramatic but is conducive to direct interactions with individual sculptures. The museum offered many variations of reconstruction of sculpture which I am intrigued by. Our way of interpreting visual imagery and history is always a reconstruction of a reconstruction. Through conservational interventions, the stories are told, altered, and retold. I’m able to enter a space like the Palazzo Altemps and recreate these histories as a part of my practice.
To what extent, if any, has your proposed project changed since your arrival?
I’m loosely titling the projects I am working on while at the Academy “Rome Works”. I am looking at several things, from detailed floor mosaics, wall structures, and rooms; fabricating new systems and structures from material samples used in the construction of Rome, somewhat like a drawing; and imaging busts and crated and bound statues in various states of reparation. These aren’t documentations, but rather investigations of the construction of what we have come to know Rome to be. Many of these specific images have been new discoveries for me since arriving.
Have you had any "eureka!" moments or unanticipated breakthroughs in the course of your work here?
So many classical sculptures are already reconstructions. I never realized this in studying art history. I have become another participant in the wave of the retelling of the history of Rome. This continuous generational alteration was illuminating for me and changed the trajectory of my work. It has been freeing to remove preconceived notions of what these famous works of art are supposed to be and work with them as they are.
What aspect of your project are you most looking forward to?
I have just received permission to photograph the colossal fragments of Constantine from the Captioline museum. I am interested in the wall of the museum that is undergoing restoration. The language of crating and protection is one that I have been working within for several years and can be traced through my works in Museum Pieces and Re-Classifying History. Since I’ve been interested in museums’ preservation and restoration for years, getting to work with this site is exhilarating.
What part of your project has been or do you anticipate will be the most challenging?
Issues of access have been difficult as I am not trying to document the works but I’m trying to investigate them in a conceptual manner. I was surprised by this at first. Though at times difficult it has also been working out very well. The advisors to the AAR have been extremely helpful in facilitating access.
What's surprised you most about living in Rome?
Even in a simple walk to the post office or the store, you are confronted with this palpable sense of history. It’s such a profound reminder of the times in which I live. I am constantly wrestling with this confrontation of layers of history because I am inescapably living within it.
How have you managed the balance between your work (time in the studio/study) and engagement with Rome and Italy (travel, sightseeing, interactions with locals)?
I had no idea that the American Academy in Rome would be such a social institution with incredibly interesting people constantly coming by for meals. There’s always something on the calendar to do, so it has been a matter of making some time-management choices where I have to be in periods of extreme work and pull myself away from the programs and lectures offered at the Academy. It’s a constant negotiation and balance of activities.
How do you anticipate your Rome Prize Fellowship will influence future work?
For me, the work I am doing here is a continuation of the ideas of how knowledge is transferred. I’ve never been involved in such a platform of historical information. I’m sure that being steeped in such a dynamic sense of history is going to be profound. With the “Rome Works”, I’m moving between temporal methodologies to create lineages and linkages between history and a contemporary context.
What is your favorite spot at the Academy? or in Rome?
My favorite spot at the Academy is my fantastic stand-alone studio in the courtyard.