(exhibition installation view)
“Richard C. (a soiled t-shirt claimed by death of an outgoing, discontented, muscular iron worker
who strove to survive in the chaos of everyday existence showing vulnerability in love for both women and men
while fashioned into coherent and incoherent narratives versed with cocaine and heroine addictions)”
medium white cotton v-neck undershirt on wire hanger
33 x 26 in. / 83.82 x 15.24 cm
“Minnesota rock (North Shore Lake Superior)”
3 x 5 x 3 in. / 7.62 x 12.7 x 7.62 cm
“Minnesota dirt jar #2”
Minnesota dirt in glass jar with lid
5.5 x 3 x 3 in. / 13.97 x 7.62 x 7.62 cm
“malpuraĵo bruon kampo botaniko #1”
botanical and dirt stains, ink on Crescent board
18 x 14 in. / 45.7 x 35.5 cm
“malpuraĵo bruon kampo botaniko #2 (magnolia)”
botanical and dirt stains, ink on Crescent board
18.875 x 15.75 in. / 48 x 40 cm
“malpuraĵo bruon kampo botaniko #3 (palaver)”
botanical and dirt stains, ink on Crescent board
19.25 x 15.5 in. / 48.9 x 39.35 cm
Besides being a curator, I am a studio artist and I am very interested in the subject of studio, what it means to work in a studio, and to a large extent, in what some people have described as the post-studio practice.
Previously, there were art works which were photographs made with chemicals, obviously needing a specialized studio. This was at one time the primary focus of my art practice. But there always have been works which were by materials which have stood and remained outside the practice of photography. In this case drawings of various materials, texts, fragments of real life, the everyday world of action and inaction, including two- and three dimensional and time based examples.
Speaking of the studio is a way to illustrate why the studio is such an important place, a place where things come together that you hadn’t anticipated or planned. It’s where you can bring in a wide range of materials and see what happens when you throw them around and at each other. And it’s often the studio accident where some of the most important shifts occur or can be tested; things that you could not or had not imagined, or anticipated. Those are some of the things that generate the next step or moving forward.
However, one cannot discount the importance of reading, about things in the world and life. Mostly, non fiction, but ideas can come from things under a microscope as well as from the far reaches of the galaxy.
If my art practice engages in post-medium and post-studio practices, it frequently plays in the space between the boundaries that separate contexts of art and non art.
Minnesota’s Superior National Forest and the Vermilion Iron Range have provided a real world studio in the heavily wooded and riverain environment that began in 1998-99 and allowed for the study of the geological, biological, both plant and animal, and the historical.