intention

                    Intention Statement

        This work represents a visual essay in which I am addressing a personal dialogue about the necessity of the art object in relation to art history as well as my own artistic history. I used two specific spaces within the St.Mary’s community that created a contrasting dialogue about the rise and fall of the art object, as well as the rise and fall of industrial production within our society. The use of contrasting sights allowed for my internal artistic dialogue to become visually narrated. I began this process with a third sight, but through the course of multiple experiments and conceptual wrestling, I have resolved to a binary conclusion with open-ended room for discussion.
The first sight for my project is the waterfront area on campus. A community symbol of expansion and industrial growth, this sight provides an industrialized backdrop for the sculpture that was created. I chose this sight because this was were I found the material for my sculpture, as well as the symbolic representation that the sight has as a place of development and expansion. The sculpture, within the sight, is a symbol for the transformation that art has gone through from a discourse to an economically driven industry; a mass production objects for the immediate consumption of society. The materials that I used, two discarded bikes tossed into the water, were intertwined into each other to create a hyper-object of industrial production. But, within my sculpture looms the premonition of things to come. While the emerging bike, a representation of the glorified industrial art-object, embraces the world it is about to enter, it can be seen that this object is not newly produced but a rusted Frankenstein created from two abandoned bikes. This component of the sculpture represents the looming danger that can come, and in my opinion has come, from over production. The fact that two bikes were thrown into the water like a old piece of gum begs the question, when have we become so caught up in industrial production and economic consumption that two bikes become undervalued trash? The space is an environment which one could argue represents St. Mary’s unnecessary industrial production and expansion. Driven by our social desire for always creating new and going bigger, the two story boat house comes with its own community-based baggage. From there, the second sight represents a conclusion about what over production can create, both socially and artistically.
Sight two is the social representation of the discarded products of our industrial society. A graveyard of architecture, this sight contains the foundation of a trailer and the left-over’s of its residents, all of which has begun to be re-claimed by nature. While the waterfront sight influenced my art by providing me with the material, and creating a large amount of space to consider when displaying the work, this sight overpowered my choices in artistic creation. Set off from the road, this desolate space overpowered my sense of safety and ownership over the space. While at the waterfront I felt comfortable in altering the space, I felt like I had no place or right to interact with the second sight. Due to that, I never went to the sight without a dog, I never stayed at the sight for more then an hour at a time, and I was never able to lose myself within the sight because I was constantly trying to stay aware of approaching people or cars. However, this sight created the perfect environment for cohesively executing a contrasting environment.
The space represents the abandonment of production within society. Set in-front of a newly developed town home community, this forgotten trailer is a visual reminder of our social obsession for creating and consuming new things, at the irresponsible neglect of the old. This sight, forgotten by those around it and a juxtaposition to the hyper-produced development behind it, represents the consequences of our need to always be producing and making. As an artist, my overwhelming addiction to produce and create begs the question; what is my responsibility as a creator of objects, and how do I address the awareness that my once valued objects inevitably become forgotten ejaculations of self-serving artistic satisfaction? This second sight seemed to be a perfect environment where I could bury my forgotten work, and where I could contemplate my constant need to produce, only to abandon the objects I birth. My abandoned sculpture, that once had life and value just as the trailer that existed at the sight once had life, was submerged into this sight to create a burial of the object; the landfill of our social and artistic production
        I think as a whole the two sights successfully speak to each other, and engage in an intriguing dialogue, however the sight specific component of each sight does not speak well for its complete communication to an audience. While photographically the two sights cohesively go together, one does not physically lead to the other. So, for anyone who would come across one sight would not know to got to the other, or that there even was another. In that way I would change my sculpture. Perhaps by finding two sights that were within walking distance of eat other, or by creating a text that would lead someone from one sight to the other, my visual essay would be able to be successfully communicated to a broader audience. Currently, each sculptural sight is viewed in isolation and so the conceptual argument is lost at the hand of location and transportation. 
        What I have realized within this assignment is that space and place have enormous power over a sight specific artwork. For example, I had created experimental works in the woods where students make bonfires and party. However, after a few days my work had been completely taken down by someone at the sight. This is interesting when considering that my intentions were only to amplify the sight, but that this artwork was perceived as invasive and unwelcome and was taken down by someone. I have a set agenda in mind for how these two space-oriented sculptures will be perceived, but location comes with an enormous amount of baggage. Sights contain historical, community, personal, and cultural meanings that are hard to challenge let alone break. Engaging in space and place within sculpture is a completely different vain that demands sensitivity and respect.