Sarah Holloway

Apple Dolls


Forks Washington

Projection

Apple Dolls


Artist Biography

Artist Biography

My name is Sarah Holloway. I use she/her pronouns. I am from what is now called Oakville, Ontario, Canada, on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishnabek Nation, the Attawandaron, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. My education began at OCAD University before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to complete a degree in furniture design.

In times of isolation, I have been keen to lean on my nonhuman relationships, getting to know the plants and ecosystem around me. Over the past few years I have grown twin flame interests in computation and ecology; Hitting the inspect button in web browsers and on walks around my neighborhood. With an education in craft, (primarily woodworking,) I am curious how these older ways of knowing impact my primarily self-taught education in computation.

Email List

Hello ?

This past autumn, my blossoming interest in hardware was pollinated by an unexpected gift, a Macintosh Plus computer from the late 1980s. The computer came into my possession through an act of urban gleaning. It seemed fitting that the computer's next life be powered by a gleaned source as well. In December 2021, I powered the Macintosh plus with one gigantic 'apple battery'. Over 50 rotting apples were connected with pennies, nails and wire in a series circuit. An apple-powered, Apple computer ran MacPaint. To house my power source, I built a cabinet out of used-sweet-corn crates that held the apples (forming the battery), as well as the apples that could no longer supply power (that were immortalized as apple dolls). As a gift for helping run the next iteration of the apple, you will get to carve an apple doll that once dried will be further immortalized as a 3D scan. You may keep the scan but I will take the apple doll as a souvenir for my travel.

Send an email to me here with name and location to add yourself to my apple doll pilgrimage.


Interview

ET:

How would you describe your relationship with your apple dolls?

Relics of power. Endearing, some of them were made by friends and have a face that takes after them, artistically I mean.  

ET:

How would you describe your relationship with your apple dolls?

Relics of power. Endearing, some of them were made by friends and have a face that takes after them, artistically I mean.  

ET:

The thing I love about your work is the two forms it can take, the ephemeral physical apple and the scanned apple which can live on basically forever- or until the internet crashes. I’d love to hear you talk about duality and how these two different forms function in your work.

Heir and a spare. No. It has less to do with archival work and more to further a formal exploration of the apple dolls as a subject matter. The apple dolls are kinda hand-held sculptures. They are meant to be touched and are not precious. So 3D scanning, allowing for full 360 manipulations seemed like the best fit. I intended for the project to titer between digital and physical. I saw digitizing the apple dolls as a nice bridge between the analog of digital parts of the project.

ET:

The thing I love about your work is the two forms it can take, the ephemeral physical apple and the scanned apple which can live on basically forever- or until the internet crashes. I’d love to hear you talk about duality and how these two different forms function in your work.

Heir and a spare. No. It has less to do with archival work and more to further a formal exploration of the apple dolls as a subject matter. The apple dolls are kinda hand-held sculptures. They are meant to be touched and are not precious. So 3D scanning, allowing for full 360 manipulations seemed like the best fit. I intended for the project to titer between digital and physical. I saw digitizing the apple dolls as a nice bridge between the analog of digital parts of the project.

ET;

What is the relationship with your work and to the theme of pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage to me is a journey of significance and of some distance. Perhaps a transformation of sorts occurs.  I’ve anthropomorphized the apple dolls enough to see them as little people who physically and digitally travel to their audience. Their dignification and journey on to the Earthtones website is a travel that has greatly affected them. Secondly, the work is meant to generate a map of sorts of people interested in the project which hypothetically the apples could travel along.

ET;

What is the relationship with your work and to the theme of pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage to me is a journey of significance and of some distance. Perhaps a transformation of sorts occurs.  I’ve anthropomorphized the apple dolls enough to see them as little people who physically and digitally travel to their audience. Their dignification and journey on to the Earthtones website is a travel that has greatly affected them. Secondly, the work is meant to generate a map of sorts of people interested in the project which hypothetically the apples could travel along.

ET:

Walk us through a little bit of your process in creating this work?

 I glean most of my materials. What is available then determines a lot of my practice. Fate had it that I was gifted a Macintosh Plus computer from a friend in the fall, during apple season. I had been thinking about comparisons of material yesteryears, or less common objects and systems that could be used as metaphors for teaching myself more complex systems…Like when you are in science class and you do a lot of practice circuits

ET:

Walk us through a little bit of your process in creating this work?

 I glean most of my materials. What is available then determines a lot of my practice. Fate had it that I was gifted a Macintosh Plus computer from a friend in the fall, during apple season. I had been thinking about comparisons of material yesteryears, or less common objects and systems that could be used as metaphors for teaching myself more complex systems…Like when you are in science class and you do a lot of practice circuits

ET:

Is a majority of your practice based digitally? Specifically in 3D scanning or do you have a large studio practice as well?

I have a studio practice as well. I am going to school to study furniture making which provides me with an understanding of fine woodworking and some metalsmithing and textile fabrication. Furniture design is not what I do primarily, though it is fun, the skills I learn are definitely reflected in my sculptural practice. I have only started using 3D scanning software but it has been very fun to play with within CNC fabrication. Currently, I am making a series of CNC’d bark samples in Oak wood.

ET:

Is a majority of your practice based digitally? Specifically in 3D scanning or do you have a large studio practice as well?

I have a studio practice as well. I am going to school to study furniture making which provides me with an understanding of fine woodworking and some metalsmithing and textile fabrication. Furniture design is not what I do primarily, though it is fun, the skills I learn are definitely reflected in my sculptural practice. I have only started using 3D scanning software but it has been very fun to play with within CNC fabrication. Currently, I am making a series of CNC’d bark samples in Oak wood.

ET:

Do you have any major inspirations? Can be within the art realm, could be books, movies, music, the world is your oyster!

As corny as it sounds, I have recently remembered that I love reading. I have been falling down a rabbit hole of hyper-text which started with a recommendation by a professor of mine, S.A Chavarrã­a, to read Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch. 

I just started a part-time job that has me looking at Telidon, a pre-internet,  Pseudo-internet system in Canada during the ’80s. This has gotten me to research early internet art and computer art from the ‘80’s to contextualize this work more. There is an exhibit going on at Interacess in Toronto in Spring 2023.

ET:

Do you have any major inspirations? Can be within the art realm, could be books, movies, music, the world is your oyster!

As corny as it sounds, I have recently remembered that I love reading. I have been falling down a rabbit hole of hyper-text which started with a recommendation by a professor of mine, S.A Chavarrã­a, to read Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch. 

I just started a part-time job that has me looking at Telidon, a pre-internet,  Pseudo-internet system in Canada during the ’80s. This has gotten me to research early internet art and computer art from the ‘80’s to contextualize this work more. There is an exhibit going on at Interacess in Toronto in Spring 2023.