Acquisitions in Context: June Ahrens

Artist June Ahrens's work addresses issues of loss, pain, fragility, danger, and survival. Her work is obsessive in spirit and uses reclaimed or repurposed everyday objects. In her latest series Broken Worlds, Ahrens uses broken acrylic mirrors, broken jars, and bottles. The glass pieces were broken and re-created to make new shapes and forms, taking on an anthropomorphic quality with an added sense of reality. The shadows cast by these forms add another dimension to the installations and provide a way to integrate form and concept, going beyond language, exposing conditions, which are not always obvious but are always present.

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Above: June Ahrens, Still Standing, 2010; reclaimed jars, glass, aluminum, 24 x 72 x 30 in.; Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art