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Sippwell Exhibitions
"Earthy Materials Add Element of Power to Dillbohner's Work"
by Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, Friday, May 26, 2000, Art Reviews.
Christel Dillbohner traces the origins of her richly textured show at Ellen Kim Murphy Gallery to a life long interest in "primitive" culture and, more specifically, to work residencies in Australia in 1998-99.
She furthered her research into the integration of native people and their environment.
Rituals everywhere attempt to order experiences and endow it with meaning, but in aboriginal culture especially, art - whether it goes by the name or not - is deeply important to the process, far more than it is given credit for in our place and time.
Dillbohner's achievement is to create work that assumes that same essential role for itself, and realizes it in its own physically powerful terms.
Natural materials such as bees wax, charcoal and plant matter are primary to Dillbohner's installation, paintings and assemblages.
The power of place is an inexhaustible theme, and Dillbohner mines it deeply and thoughtfully, creating numerous works that are themselves places invested with power.
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