Lisa Banta

at rest, 2021

Bioplastic, baling wire

at rest was created as part of a series in response to the artist’s experimentation with the elements needed to create bioplastics and the process of uncovering the possibilities inherent within the material. The sculpture is a collection of bioplastic filaments produced from a compound that uses gelatin from beef, pork, and glycerin. Banta was particularly struck by the material’s ability to represent and become a stand-in for life and impermanence. Its origins — skin, connective tissue, bone, and fluid from animal byproducts — are alchemically reorganized and paired with the ability to transform into something new. Banta states, “My hope is that this consideration will foreground the needs and concerns shared by all living creatures, human and non-human alike.”

Lisa Banta is research-based artist living and working in Los Angeles whose work deals with postcolonial concerns and revealing ways in which histories construct and form current cultural and ecological injustices. She balances making and conceptualism within work, often interpreting and transmuting complexities into objects and drawings, which then further thinking and study. Her practice is comprised of sculpture, installation, research, drawing, and writing, alternating between experimental materials like bioplastics and gels and traditional materials such as bronze and graphite on paper. She is interested in finding new ways to approach justice, decolonization, and care within art, Lisa attempts to create expansions that break existing patterns and challenge hierarchies. She received her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Art Practice from Portland State University in 2021, and her Master in Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in 2023.