Art in Embassies Asunción

Almond Zigmund's commission for the new U.S. Embassy in Asuncion is inspired by how the pieces interact with each other and internally, like figures leaning towards one another.

In Almond Zigmund’s installations, the built environment becomes a place of rearrangement and potential, where architectural elements and landscapes are recognized as a mutable and “theatrical place where the narratives of our lives are lived out.” By referencing elements found more commonly in structures and displacing them into sculpture, Zigmund brings attention to the aesthetic choices and cultural aspects of construction. In her work, Zigmund identifies patterns that arise out of the need for shelter and civilization, or are “embedded with histories of many different peoples through trading or colonization, and the way materials get reused and recycled.” The two large-scale stacked forms installed [[TKTKTK – WHERE OUTSIDE]] have echoes of common Paraguayan building elements, such as a section of triangular forms recalling a celosia, or breezeway, rendered in the soft red color of local mud bricks. The pieces interact with each other and internally, like figures leaning towards one another but not necessarily a “monolith,” says New York-based Zigmund, whose work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Parrish Art Museum, Watermill, New York, and the Las Vegas Art Museum. “It was important to me that you could see through the sculpture, at least part of it, and [for it] to be not imposing but welcoming.”