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Born: 08/20/73, New York, NY
Resides: Jersey City, NJ
Amy Wilson's drawings represent her ongoing
interest in fringe literature and history.
They are an attempt to compile a unified
field theory - a grand conspiracy theory
- that will explain the power structure
of global politics.
"Jeanne Lorenz/Sarah Bedford/Amy Wilson," Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY,
02/11/01 - 03/11/01
"Kosmobiologie," curated by Nancy Chaiken, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY,
06/18/00 - 07/30/00
"The UFO Show," curated by Barry Blinderman and Bill Conger, University
of Illinois at Normal/Bloomington. Travels to University
of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Arts and Science Center for
Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff. 01/00
"The Artist in the Marketplace," Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY. 7/99
"Curve," Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, 11/96
"Sarah Bedford, Jeanne Lorenz, Amy Wilson (review)," Holland Cotter, The
New York Times, 03/16/01
"Art Break: Beam Me Up," Dave Rootes, The Colorado Springs Independant,
12/14/00
"Kosmobiologie (review)," The New Yorker, 7/1000
"INBOX (review - Working Proof section)," Faye Hirsch, Art on Paper,
3/00
MFA in Sculpture, Yale University, 1997
BFA in Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, 1995
The Artist in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY, 1999
I studied sculpture at School of Visual Arts and Yale, but upon graduating I gave it up in favor of drawing.
I have been investigating conspiracy theories for about four years. Initially, my interest was primarily concerned with UFOs and the coming alien invasion, although these days I'm more interested in theories that involve politics, the media, and big corporations along with supressed information, strange happenings and armageddon. Along with my co-conspirator Jeff Edwards, I have travelled to several UFO conventions; to Roswell, NM to view the site of the supposed saucer crash; to Washington DC to see Monica Lewinsky up close to determine whether she was a robot or a Mossat agent - two theories being bandied about during the height of the controversy (I got within half a foot of her and my verdict is that she's neither); and to Sedona, AZ to commune with the great, astral hum.
I was able to turn one of these excusions in a real, tax-write-offable activity when I wrote an essay for the UFO Show catalogue called "My Ufology" which talks about my continuing interest in UFOs. It contains several travel photos from Roswell.
I have also occasionally organized exhibitions. I was one of three
people (Karina Skvirsky and Liena Vayzman being the other two) who
curated a series of four portfolios of prints by emerging artists called
INBOX; several of these portfolios were subsequently purchased by the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art library, The New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum library, Indiana University, and the Joan Flasche Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as several private collections. Currently, I'm working on a show of prints and multiples, created to be given away for free or sold at low cost, for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
My work is an investigation into conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena, and the unknown. The work that is represented on this site breaks down into two categories:
The Subrosa series:
This work is loosely based on the manic writings of Sirhan Sirhan which were found in his apartment after he killed Robert Kennedy. In his diaries and on slips of paper found around his place, Sirhan repeatedly wrote the same words or phrases over and over again, often with the words bleeding into each other. I've copied his technique in this work, using the repeated words to create a structure or web between two seemingly disparate ideas - for instance, "CIA" and "TV" might be connected by "UFO" written repeatedly in tiny letters; the drawing would then elaborate on the CIA's connections to UFOs and television's continuing interest in aliens.
Tragedy and Hope:
In this series, which was shown at Bellwether in February 2001, various
people, places and things involved in complicated conspiracy theories
are plotted out against the backdrop of what might be a slightly surreal
children's book illustration. Each component of the drawing has its own "symbology" - the rainbows connect one idea to the next (like the repeating words above); pollinating worker bees are the people who do the dirty work for the bosses, represented by flowers; stars hover and represent those who remain somewhat uninvolved, except to constantly watch the action and be in the know.
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