Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Born in Honduras and raised in Belize, Derek Webster spent most of his adult life in Chicago, where he worked as a custodian for the Chicago Public School system. Often working with found materials, Webster collected discarded objects for his sculptures, refashioning detritus into vibrant and playful works that deeply challenge the more refined visual codes of art history. Seurat Lady is a playful reference to Georges-Pierre Seurat, the 19th-century French painter known for his pointillist technique and his depiction of Parisians of various social classes on the banks of the River Seine in works such as A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–86) displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Webster reimagines the chic, feminine figures of Seurat’s canvas by using a plastic bottle as the body of his sculpture, adorning it with bottle caps, beads, keys, chains, and other found objects that form an intricate layer of makeshift clothing and accessories.