VANISHING

ARTIST

Mia Cinelli

Mia Cinelli is an Assistant Professor of Art Studio and Digital Design at the University of Kentucky. Her design practice encompasses an eclectic span of poetic and pragmatic products, installations, and graphics which have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recently, her typographic works have been acknowledged with Best in Festival for New Work at DesignTO (2020), a Graphis Silver award for typeface design (2018), a Society of Typographic Arts “STA 100” award (2019), and a Communication Arts Typography award (2020). With an inquiry-driven practice, she is passionate about—and continually excited by— the possibilities of visual communication and human-centered design.

COUNTRY

United States

PROJECT

Insatiable Spaces

Engaging with the archetypal form of a house as a metaphor for the safe and familiar, these miniature sculptures explore the physical manifestations of yearning. As emotionally functional objects, they serve to address, alleviate, or activate our longing for a time and place which has vanished. Here, nostalgia and homesickness are similar as insatiable desires. These tiny spaces are sardonic faux-confections —simultaneously delightful and disappointing.

MEDIUM

Original miniature sculptures: printed waxed paper, paper sticks, clay, acrylic paint, interior house paint, soap