Alli Hoag, who holds a BFA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a 2012 MFA from Alfred, is obsessed with boundaries. If there's a line through the varied work she has produced both in her own practice and through international residencies at locations such as the Cite des Arts International in Paris, France and S12 Galleri og Verksted in Bergen, Norway, it is her interest in the possibilities and limitations of connection — interpersonal as well as between individuals and the world around them. Hoag's art-making is driven by this interest. As she writes in her online artist's statement: "The act of making becomes an action of physical wish fulfillment. The physical result becomes a proxy, a body without organs — it exposes our innate drive to connect yet reveals the deficiencies in our physical capabilities to do so." Despite being especially busy with her recent appointment to assistant professor of the glass area at the three-dimensional studies program at Bowling Green State University, Hoag took some time for an interview with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet.
GLASS: What are you working on?
Alli Hoag: I feel very lucky to say that I am pretty busy these days! I've recently accepted the assistant professor position at Bowling Green State University, which I am beyond thrilled about, so I am busy creating new course offerings, ordering new equipment, and finishing the description for a new Glass technician position! I see so much potential for this program and aim toward developing a curriculum that cultivates both experimentation and expertise at Bowling Green. I look forward to giving the students of this generation a more physical and intimate relationship with this material that is already so much a part of their world, and reveal how glass can act as a bridge, connect across artistic practices, and facilitate interdisciplinary exchange.
I'm also continuing on a collaborative project with performance artist Tinna Thorsteindottir that we named Bylta. We are concerned primarily with creating physical residue from a musical performance, and revealing the rhythm, and synchronicity within processes of glass working that are often invisible when viewing a finished object. We've been using an interface called a "Makey Makey" to trigger sounds by completing conductive circuits — the circuits are connected through the performer’s movement over metal pads throughout the hot shop (they wear conductive shoes that connect to the skin) and through the semi-conductive properties of glass to connect performers through the material itself.
It's totally fun and satisfies the puzzle solver in me, while constantly causing me to reevaluate my relationship with glass, and set a new end to working with this material. I absolutely love working with Tinna because we both are constantly learning from each other, and through combining our knowledge we can make possible ideas that we never could think up alone. When we work with a team, everyone has the space to contribute to the direction of the performance as well. The whole making process becomes about discovery and play and connection!
GLASS: What have you seen lately that has inspired you and got you thinking about your own work?
Alli: Right now with my sculptural body of work, I am really inspired by any projects in their “in-progress” state. From the scaffolding around a construction site, the whatever-is-around propping up of pieces to complete a glue joint, plaster ceilings caving in within old buildings, anything in the process of transformation with the human hand involved in some way. For me, these moments constitute a visual lexicon of human desires and the subsequent struggles to reach or maintain ideals.
I'm particularly interested by the half-finished mounts in taxidermists’ workshops- when gluing on the skin, the taxidermist meticulously pins the edges all in place, especially around the eyes, the nose, the lips. It's a fascinating moment of becoming, where the curtain is drawn revealing the awkward, mystical, and gruesome stages before the illusion of bringing something to life is fully realized.
GLASS: Where can your work be seen?
Alli: I have a piece in the "Lifeforms" travelling exhibition, which will be on exhibit during this summer’s Glass Art Society Conference (May 20-June 22), at the Houghton Gallery in Corning, New York. Tinna and I will be performing as Bylta this summer (with BGSU students and Toledo area artists performing with us!) at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 16 and UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18, presenting a new performance, entitled "Sending." I'll be at Pittsburgh Glass Center teaching a casting workshop called “Glass Taxidermy” from June 27-July 1. Also, I'm super excited working toward a solo exhibition of entirely new work at University of North Georgia’s Roy C. Moore Gallery, which will be up January 12th through Feb 9th, 2017.