Janet Goldner

Biography

Janet is an artist, researcher, and consultant. She has a lifelong relationship with Africa. She received a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in Mali in 1995. Since then, she has spent several months every year in Mali engaged in cultural research and projects concerning cultural preservation and contemporary art and artists in Mali. Her research takes the form of immersive fieldwork. She often collaborates with Malian artists.

She has received three Fulbright Specialist grants and grants from the Ford Foundation and the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid. She has lectured widely. Published articles include a chapter in Contemporary African Fashion, Indiana University Press, and an essay in Poetics of Cloth, Grey Art Gallery, NYU. Exhibition highlights include Multiple Exposures and Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design; Women Facing AIDS at the New Museum. Permanent collections include the American Embassy in Mali, the city of Segou, Mali, and the Islip Museum on Long Island, NY.

Artist statement

My work explores culture, identity, and social justice. I make steel sculptures and installations that also include photography, video, and sound. Bridging diverse cultures, my work celebrates the unique beauty and genius of each as well as what we have in common. Cultural preservation is important to my work where my research takes the form of immersive fieldwork. Annual visits to Mali, for more than two decades, provide inspiration. The evolution of my art traces my enduring exploration of sculptural form, my ongoing relationship with African culture, and my lifelong involvement in social activism.

I engage in long-term collaborations, particularly with Malian artists. They are all, at the same time, researchers and objects of research producing dialogue and concrete works of art. Working transcultural unites people from different cultures, education, and histories. The exchange of perspectives and contexts can highlight global similarities and specific cultural differences as contributors think together, contributing beliefs and strategies from their individual experiences. As the work continues over a long period of time, the result can be an identity that is not exclusively linked to a geographic location or ethnicity but to new cultural and conceptual realms. 

My life experiences play an integral part in the development of my work. As a master welder, I work in three dimensions as well as on paper, on the floor, on walls, and suspended from the ceiling, indoors and outdoors. My work combines poetry, patterns, forms, and African themes that engage in social discourse.