Excavate

Excavate is a series of amorphous forms referencing the body; generated through an intuitive process, and initiated by objects within my environment and landscape. Using layered stacks of foam coated in earthen plaster, these works rely heavily on gesture and provoke both the maker and the viewer to re-assess notions of space, materiality, and form.

The examination of ideas such as land use and masculinity have become generative in the creative practice of building work that intuitively explores larger ideas centered on ideology. The found object interjects manipulation of the environment into the constructed, artificial landscape. By juxtaposing these materials, I aim to signify the struggle between what is controllable and predominant. This tension alludes to the personal exploration and questioning of my own ideology, in which I attempt to understand, for myself, what my ideology is and what it means to have an ideology.

Working with questioning ideology deprives the work of security and definition. The abstract forms approach ineffable, and the indescribable can be confusing. However, there is security in the process, and mystery in the result. I question what the work does for me as an individual; its response to institutional paradigms, and its role in contemporary art as a whole. Engaging with these sculptures means to question what ideology is, how it is formed, and why we desire to have one. In a sense, I have constructed my own ideology to intentionally and continuously question itself.