Backbone

The complexity of working in a “life sized’ scale has been challenging and very time consuming for me. Despite the completion of “ Machines of Understanding” (which you have see in older posts) I made the decision to shift gears recently and focus on a few smaller projects.

I spend a lot of time looking at objects, considering their form and relevance. I look for evidence of their functions, traces of wear and tear, and any other indications of why that object may exist. This is probably normal for a visual artist, but I often wonder how many people do this. It is something that I find enormously valuable and fun, and yet when I examine the cultures that overlap and form our society, I find very little evidence of what I would consider to be material awareness.

Moving from an industrial to a service culture has undoubtedly been responsible, in part, for this and I think it is likely that we will continue to see the effects of these consequences ripple throughout our lifetimes. The consumerism born out of this shift in our social and economic lifestyle discourages our knowledge of materials and pacifies us with cheap, available replacements for anything that falls out of the realm of perfect. Our media culture also keeps us distracted by moving much faster than what, I believe, is needed to truly digest information and make relevant decisions.

With all of this, it is hard for me to consider how anyone can both stay plugged in to our society and still maintain a relative grip on their consciousness, let alone take time to notice the subtleties of the objects we are surrounded by all the time. They just do not seem to be compatible to me.

Here is a piece that acts as viewing scope of sorts. It holds a magnifying lens that, in conjunction with a concealed light source, reveals the physical details of its contents.

This is my way of intentionally creating an atmosphere and a devise that shows the complexity and beauty of the simple things we seem to take for granted.

- Stat Tuned