Albuquerque artist Sallie Scheufler uses her personal history for material through her interdisciplinary works. Her recent exhibition explores how relationships inform our desires.
Sallie Scheufler is an Albuquerque-based interdisciplinary artist. Scheufler uses her personal history as artistic fodder in the context of feminist theory and familial relationships through performance, video, sound, photography, and sculpture.
“Family Resemblance is a body of work and exhibition that opened just as the pandemic hit Albuquerque. I was able to have an opening, but the show shut down the following week. At the reception, a friend of mine was in tears watching the video “Natural” Hair, expressing how much she missed her mom.
This work is based on desire, the desires we have, the desires we form as we grow up, and the desires we allow. Throughout Family Resemblance, I explore the idea that relationships inform our desires and make us who we are.
Looking at this work now, all I feel is longing. It has almost been a year since I’ve seen any of my family, let alone held them in this way, a way that feels familiar and comforting but is not typical for us, especially not as adults.”
In Family Resemblance, Scheufler presents text, videos, and photographs of herself and the women in her family. Taking a critical look at her personal history, Scheufler uses time-based media to explore how relationships within her family affect her sense of self—performed and inherited. Staged portraits utilize tools found in the beauty industry to draw attention to physical features, alike and unlike. She dresses in drag to fit in with her sisters. She and her mom get matching hairstyles to fulfill her mother’s wishes, but not in the way her mom expects. Family Resemblance addresses beauty standards, wanting what we don’t have, and growing up in makeover culture.
Scheufler received her MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico and her BFA from Arizona State University.
Albuquerque, NM | salliescheufler.com | ig: @salliescheufler
