“I finally found my niche,” Sydney Bienstock says of her journey from doing arts and crafts as a youngster to fashioning distinctive collages, like the one gracing the cover of this Motif issue. Bienstock always loved art. But she didn’t consider herself a good illustrator or painter, she relates. Wanting to be a creative, she visited Makerspace at the Providence Public Library on Empire Street, and decided to try her hand at collage. Some friends of hers were attending Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She secured her initial materials from another RISD student, then decided to do some collage nights with her friends. Bienstock’s artwork is inspired by fashion and animals. Most of her collages feature dogs. She remembers dressing up the family dog Winnie, when the Chorkie was just a puppy, in Build-A-Bear clothes. She currently features other animals, including birds, in her work. Recently, a new roommate moved in with a couple of cats named Jessie and Ollie, which has inspired some of her other pieces.
For this cover, Bienstock cut out a blue bathing suit top from a fashion catalog, and placed it on a picture of a bird whose wings stretched like arms through the sides of the suit. She’d cut out the bird from an Audubon Society illustrated book. For a finishing touch, she placed a cutout of a Tiffany lampshade on the bird as a skirt. “I’ve always been fascinated by stained glass,” she explains in an interview at Small Format, the queer, cooperatively run café, gallery, and exhibit space on Wickenden Street in PVD. “I haven’t attempted to make a physical piece yet. But I can put it into my art,” she adds. The iconic lampshades are featured in several of her works. The first collage Bienstock exhibited was at the Sojourner House women’s shelter in Providence last year for Dear Survivor. She used a picture of an upholstered chair and around it digitally wrapped the text: “If I could sit down with my younger self, I’d tell her that it isn’t her fault and that the shame she feels shouldn’t be hers to bear.” Describing herself as a hunter and gatherer, Bienstock says she has the most fun looking for animals, clothes and inanimate objects that go together nicely. Her bookcase is filled with magazines, catalogs, art history tomes, and illustrated books that she’s constantly flipping through. She also holds onto junk mail for the lettering. Her approach is to start with the clothes: shirts, sweaters, dresses, or suits. Then, she strives for an exact fit with the head.
The collage artist uses Washi tape to fashion the pieces into a collage. Once satisfied with the look of it, she replaces the Washi with double-sided tape for a permanent placement. The technique is neater than using white glue. She’ll affix a drop of glue with a toothpick to any tiny pieces in her collage. She works on the dining room table. “My roommates are cool with letting me make a mess on it,” she chuckles. Bienstock likes to build a world around the personalities of the animals she chooses for her artwork. She collaged a sophisticated cat clad in a classy blue dress. She took a picture of her friend’s dog, and put it in an MF DOOM sweatshirt and the same type of lampshade skirt that dons the bird on this cover. She’s participated in the Anti-Robot Club sale at Farm Fresh RI on Sims Avenue in PVD. “It was my first time selling my art. There was a swap at the end with other sellers, and I came away with a pair of earrings for myself, and a Star Wars print for my dad,” she says. Her collage Dog Having Sweet Treats is on display at Rong Chic on Wickenden Street. She works at the restaurant, which specializes in Sichuan cuisine. And she’s on the waiting list for an AS220 show. Her artistic goals are to exhibit at more galleries and get involved in more markets. She’s also thinking of incorporating 3D pieces in her collages. “I have friendship bracelets that I made when I was a girl. So it would almost be like a collaboration with myself,” she remarks.
Bienstock moved to PVD from Pawtucket three years ago. “I was going to Rhode Island College and wanted to be closer to school,” she says. Now a graduate, she’s decided to apply in February to the Community College of Rhode Island’s (CCRI) Radiography program to become an X-ray technician. On the fashion front, most days find her in comfy clothes like “graphic T-shirts and funky socks,” she concludes.
Bienstock’s collages can be viewed @SydCollages on Instagram.