MFA Spotlight: Anthony Corraro

Anthony Corraro’s work thrives on impermanence, using hand-dyed floor dust to print intricate designs through a silkscreen – all with the purpose of being swept away. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Anthony is currently in his second year of the MFA in Studio Art program at Wichita State University.

What materials and processes do you use to create your work?

My work is created by pushing dust through a screen, resulting in these transient screen prints. The dust comes from sweeping Henrion or my studio, anywhere around really. I collect the dust in buckets, put it through several filter processes, and dye it cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I use screen printing ink to mix into the dust, which turns into a paste. I’ll then smooth out that paste and break it up with a ball mill. The ball mill is essentially a tumbler with rocks in it that help pulverize the dust so I can get it fine enough to fit through the screen. Finding the right screen size and finding the right amount of pulverization was a challenge, but I got there in the end.

What inspires your work?

These prints specifically were inspired by the sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism, which are done by hand by a team of monks over an extended period of time that they sweep away once they’re finished. A lot of my work has initially been inspired by Buddhism, but really anything involving unattachment, presence, and the flow of time – the transient nature of things. I always wanted to make ephemeral work that speaks to that.  

The dust used for your prints comes from sweeping areas around you, and the prints are specifically created to be swept away. How does the act of cleaning tie into the work that you make?

I’ve used a lot of cleaning supplies in previous work; dustpans, mops, brooms, etc. That’s how I came across this whole idea of cleaning as a form of meditation. Cleaning involves these quick repetitive actions that we do consistently over a long period of time – much like one would use going to church, saying a prayer, saying a mantra. For me it gives me a lot of peace, how cleaning itself speaks to our desire to establish order in a world that is so against it. The impulse to dust something that will inevitably become dusty again, it’s this absurd practice where there’s no end goal in mind. It’s very temporary, but it's part of life and the flow of things. Everything is temporary.

Cleaning is also associated with meditation because of the way that clutter in our house can contribute to the clutter in our minds. I see these designs as that mental clutter, even though I spend a lot of time making them aesthetically pleasing. They look nice in the way that there’s a visually appealing symmetrical design, there’s a nice color palette, etc. But really that’s all they are, is visual clutter. I think it’s ok to appreciate them in the moment but at some point, you’ll have to let it go – and it’s freeing to do so. There’s something so cathartic about letting it go.

You can find more of Anthony's work on his Instagram at @anthony.corraro