The Value of Things - Mixed Media Object
Create a meaningful mixed media work with Alicia Piller
Available spots
Service Description
Every object has a story. Some we treasure. Others we throw away. For this workshop, students will consider how value is assigned to objects, materials, and even living things. Each student brings: • one discarded, obsolete, or found object (something overlooked, broken, or destined for the trash) • one meaningful object (or a copy, photograph, or symbolic stand-in if it's too precious to alter) Using wrapping, binding, layering, weaving, stitching, wiring, or encasing techniques, students will transform these objects into a single sculptural form. The goal isn't to hide the objects completely, but to create a new relationship between them— one that asks viewers to reconsider what deserves care, preservation, and remembrance. The finished work becomes a kind of contemporary relic: an object that carries both personal memory and environmental consciousness. About the Artist: Alicia Piller is a Los Angeles–based mixed media artist whose practice explores materiality, memory, and the construction of history. Raised in Chicago, she earned her BFA in Painting and Anthropology from Rutgers University in 2004, grounding her work in both visual language and the study of human systems. Piller spent a decade in New York City working in the fashion industry, followed by three and a half years in Santa Fe, New Mexico—experiences that shaped her distinct sculptural voice and deep engagement with material transformation. She received her MFA in Sculpture and Installation from CalArts in 2019. Her work constructs what she describes as a material cosmology—where history, identity, and erasure orbit one another across layered systems of meaning. Drawing on cellular biology as a metaphor for trauma, repair, and continuity, she merges organic, industrial, and digital materials to create immersive, large-scale forms that examine how memory persists within contemporary cultural and political landscapes. Incorporating natural materials, recycled fabrics from the fast fashion industry, recycled 3D-printed components, and found objects, her sculptures function as evolving constellations—assembling fragments of labor, consumption, ancestry, and time into dynamic, interconnected fields. Piller’s work is held in the permanent collections of the California African American Museum, the Hammer Museum, and Glendale Community College, as well as in notable private collections including Pam Royalle, Janine Barrois, Dr. Joy Simmons, and artist Lauren Bon.
Cancellation Policy
Studio Policies Payment in full is needed at the time of registration. Student cancellations more than 4 weeks in advance of a workshop are fully refundable, minus a 20% processing fee. Cancellations 2-4 weeks in advance are 50% refundable, minus a 20% processing fee. There is no refund for cancellations made less than 2 weeks before the workshop. The only exception to this policy is if your spot can be filled from a waitlist, in which case you will receive your refund minus a 20% processing fee. If a workshop is cancelled by an Instructor for any reason you will receive a full refund, unless you prefer to apply your payment to another workshop.