In "Reconstructed Reliquaries," Stephanie Lempert’s new body of work, the artist continues
her exploration into methods of communication and more narrowly with language. Lempert
explores the intertwined nature of cherished mementos and the childhood reminiscences
that make them precious. The Artist consolidates complex and multifaceted family narratives
held in the memory of the real life storytellers and connects them to a single inanimate object
found in our workaday world. For this project, Lempert interviewed close to 100 persons from
all walks of life, exploring the rationale behind the reasons certain memories stay with us and
why we form attachments to particular objects.

Known primarily as a photographer and video artist, Lempert has taken the next logical step
in her studio practice by incorporating three-dimensional works to consolidate her concepts.
Traditional sculpture, marble or wood, is achieved by a reductive process, removing a thin
layer at a time to obtain the precise form the artist has envisioned. In contrast, Lempert
creates her sculptures by adding on thin layer by thin layer, creating a work of art that
technologically would not be possible just a few years ago. Using a cutting edge, three-dimensional
stereoscopic printing process, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), a rapid prototyping process,
Lempert is able to use the actual handwriting of the storytellers to create the sculpture itself;
the subjects’ own words make their memories tangible objects. Infusing these icons with
human emotions, Lempert weaves stories, literally and figuratively reconstructing memories
in such a way as to create a repository for the next generation’s hopes and dreams; the
sculpture she has created becomes the touchstones of the very words they embrace.