Spotlight: Renewed Purpose

Jill Sigman, donning a neon-yellow reflective vest and gray gardening gloves, surveys the heap of discarded trash that towers at least six feet above her inside a warehouse the size of an airplane hangar.

Recognizable brands such as Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut peek through the amalgamation of white paper and black trash bags at the Waste Management Sarasota Transfer Station — Mount Yesterday. Sigman pulls a few pieces of debris out of the pile and examines them but then puts them back — she’s looking for something specific.

Then she spots it. A child-size pink boogie board plastered in Disney princesses lies among the discarded; its Styrofoam insides are exposed due to a large rip in the back. Sigman turns the item over in her hands, wondering aloud about its origin. Who owned it? For what was it used?

“To some degree, objects have interesting histories,” says Sigman. “Sometimes you can only guess at the history, but some of them are interesting. You can imagine some child owned this, used it and touched it.”

Sigman is not an adventurous dumpster diver; she’s a contributing artist to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art’s exhibition “Re:Purposed,” which opens Feb. 13. Featuring other contemporary artists such Nick Cave, Aurora Robson, Mac Premo and El Anatsui, the series focuses on artists who create works composed entirely of castoff materials. Each of Sigman’s works is site-specific. Her upcoming work, “Hut Number 10,” will be an interactive and stable structure constructed completely out of abandoned things collected at the Sarasota County landfill and from Sarasota streets.

“My art focuses on what we throw away, how much we throw away and where it goes,” says Sigman, as she wipes her gloves off after a fresh round of hunting. “I talk to many people when working on each project and ask them what was the last thing they threw away, how long did they have it and did they know where it was going to go?”

Sigman’s work is a roving exploration of each city and neighborhood she scours for building materials. Unlike artists who buy their raw materials in an art supplies store, Sigman’s medium can be found virtually anywhere. She has created huts in Troy, N.Y., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Oslo. Each domicile is about the size of a small room.

Although the hut series is a fairly new venture in her artistic life (Sigman is primarily a dancer and choreographer) the progression is a natural one. She allows the movement of the materials to determine their placement in the structure. There are no blueprints or extensive structural planning, just improvisational architectural choreography.

Though her work initially explored the relationship of people and their possessions, Sigman’s 10th entry in her ongoing hut series has an innate environmental aspect to it.

Each object used to construct the hut, once destined to lie dormant in a landfill, has been given a second life.

“I hope that people will re-see things in their life in a whole new light,” says Sigman. “The huts I build are a little bit fun and a little bit sinister, so I want visitors to have fun but also imagine, dream and confront difficult questions.”
 

IF YOU GO 
‘Re:Purposed’
When: Feb. 13 through May 17
Where: The John and Mable Ringing Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Road
Tickets: $25 for adults; $23 for seniors 65 and older; $5 for children 6 to 17 and students with ID; free for children 5 or younger
Info: Call 359-5700 or visit ringling.org.