Astrid Hunter is a studio artist working predominantly in sculpture and drawing. Her go-to materials are light, glass, wood, graphite, paper + glue. Astrid grew up in Central New Jersey and she graduated from Alfred University in 2019 with a BFA in Art & Design and a BA in Political Science. Astrid currently works at glassybaby in Seattle while she works towards her Master’s in Education Theory. Currently her website offers documentation of works from 2018-2019, her BFA thesis exhibit, and other exploratory projects from her undergraduate degree.

artist statement

By exploring absurd systems of repetition using light, physical interaction, and visual imagery, I aim to increase awareness of monotony, disrupt routine, and encourage self-awareness and autonomous thinking. The work is mordant play; neither entirely lighthearted nor entirely solemn. Pushing the tension between childlike interactions and our grown interpretations of time reveals emotions and social structures that affect us all as adults.

Drawing is my intimate play and personal rendering of the world. These works are representative of another, bleaker society with dystopian human problems similar to the world we know now (broken communication, complex power dynamics, and systemic identity crises). Through drawing and collage, disjointed and imagined images are combined to represent sociopolitical problems and to mask individuality. While a lot of my imagery stems directly from childhood drawings at age 4, this current body of work focuses on articulating a more complex and reflective reality using simple visual signifiers. My main strategies are homogenizing identity, imposing arbitrary flags, emphasizing pattern, deconstructing architecture, and using rudimentary color schemes. Within these approaches, initially nonsensical imagery is manipulated to point out a loss of humanity and provoke imagination in a way that is engaging, rather than dismal.

Conversely, my sculptures are grounded in the physical world and are interactive translations of ideas. An object and an opportunity are offered to find solutions for the problems I identify through drawing and writing; viewers are asked to playfully interact with artwork or to watch the motion of an art object over time. I primarily work with light, glass, and wood, and use these materials to create a fluctuating balance between abstract ideas and real, relevant phenomena.

Collectively, the works provide a shift in perspective, guiding viewers to an imaginary plane and back to the real world to impose further investigation and problem-solving.