Artist Statement "Paired Cups"

Dolores Cuccovia
December 19, 2008
Artist Statement
Paired Cups


As an Artist, I use empathy as a means of purpose in my work, creating dialogue and making connections between people on a humanistic level. Discovering and reacting to relationships that exist in our world is imperative to my inspiration, as well as using the expression of conflicts within the self as a therapeutic form. My interest in psychological, societal issues causes further discovery during my creative process. I apply and present personal situations in a clear way to induce empathy and connect with viewers. A recent installation of mine involved collaboration with strangers about broken romantic relationships. Relationships are an exchange of consumption. I found coffee and teacups were an appropriate medium specific to this issue. After collecting information about individuals broken relationships through a survey. I formalized the information to create an installation of paired coffee mugs and teacups to represent each couple’s situation. Within each relationship there is an uneven distribution of power. One always has more hierarchy over the other. The suspended cups resemble those who hold themselves above the other. This piece was intended to be therapeutic for both the strangers, myself and for viewers who can relate. It is my goal provides a sense of comfort to those who have experienced or are in the comfortable un-comfort of a broken relationship. This work is a tribute, a reaction to those who have shared their side of the broken relationship story.