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Jill Birschbach

My sculpture is a response to my working-class upbringing. We were raised to work hard and not question. My parents often made things they needed, sewed clothes, knit, grew vegetables and repaired their possessions. My father spoke with reverence about other people who were mechanically inclined. I wanted to be one of those people. On family trips we would take factory tours, visit dams and power plants. As a college student I worked in a factory in the summers. My small hometown had industry and food processing plants, older buildings and remnants from the late 1800s. My pieces exist in that context. They are mechanical looking like an indeterminate machine part. They have holes stamped in regular intervals like a sheet of pegboard. I glaze them with crusty, bumpy and peeling surfaces to emphasize the grittiness. There are also runny and oozing glazes reminiscent of bodily fluids. They look old and crusty yet beautiful and appealing.

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