Current Show
CHAD D. CURTIS
digital / analog / analogues
November 9 - December 11, 2009
Reception: Thursday, November 12, 6-8 PM
"Cows" 2008 Glazed ceramic, clay slip, acrylic, milled foam, epoxy, wood, mixed media
15”w x 13”d x 46”h
Artist Statement
My work often deals with simulation and refinement utilizing highly
processed materials, removed from the context of their origin, to create a
synthetic experience. At an increasing rate, the primary means in which the
world is experienced is through mediation. Simulation has become the
surrogate for primary experience whether via the computer, suburbia, or
NutraSweet®. This work, in many ways, is synonymous with Disney World
or Las Vegas as highly refined and artificial environments. I find myself
simultaneously seduced by the refinement and purity of the materials while
being disgusted by the implications of their refinement.
In a broader context, this work explores the line between the biological and
mechanical, using popular, iconographic references. The idea of a
distinction between the biological and the industrial, or the human and the
digital, and the blurring of that distinction, is explored both as subject matter
in the work and also in the production. The drawings are composed digitally
and rendered with marker on a home-brewed computer-controlled drawing
machine, which attempts to mimic the hand and cast doubt on the
distinction between the hand and the machine. In a similar sense, the foam
landscapes are sculpted with an adapted version of the drawing machine ,
having been digitally modeled and rendered through a computer, numeric
code, and a hodgepodge of hardware store components, which constitute a
crude mechanical fabrication device.
In the process of being seduced and repulsed, of distinguishing the
biological from the digital, there exists an environment for dialogue. In this
environment, the dialogue is neither either/or, but a complex system of
nuanced relationships that are full of both potential and hope, and
significant moral and ethical questions.
Black Vultures (Audubon Series: Birds of Prey), 2009 Mechanical rendering, marker on painted panel
24”w x 36”h
processed materials, removed from the context of their origin, to create a
synthetic experience. At an increasing rate, the primary means in which the
world is experienced is through mediation. Simulation has become the
surrogate for primary experience whether via the computer, suburbia, or
NutraSweet®. This work, in many ways, is synonymous with Disney World
or Las Vegas as highly refined and artificial environments. I find myself
simultaneously seduced by the refinement and purity of the materials while
being disgusted by the implications of their refinement.
In a broader context, this work explores the line between the biological and
mechanical, using popular, iconographic references. The idea of a
distinction between the biological and the industrial, or the human and the
digital, and the blurring of that distinction, is explored both as subject matter
in the work and also in the production. The drawings are composed digitally
and rendered with marker on a home-brewed computer-controlled drawing
machine, which attempts to mimic the hand and cast doubt on the
distinction between the hand and the machine. In a similar sense, the foam
landscapes are sculpted with an adapted version of the drawing machine ,
having been digitally modeled and rendered through a computer, numeric
code, and a hodgepodge of hardware store components, which constitute a
crude mechanical fabrication device.
In the process of being seduced and repulsed, of distinguishing the
biological from the digital, there exists an environment for dialogue. In this
environment, the dialogue is neither either/or, but a complex system of
nuanced relationships that are full of both potential and hope, and
significant moral and ethical questions.
Black Vultures (Audubon Series: Birds of Prey), 2009 Mechanical rendering, marker on painted panel
24”w x 36”h
Biography
Curtis received his BFA from Minnesota State University and his MFA from NY State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His work has been seen internationally and across the United States. He has numerous grants and awards. Curtis is an assistant professor at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.
www.chaddcurtis.com
randomSeed(orange conifers), 2008 Glazed ceramic, acrylic, microcontroller, water, fan, led's, wood
28"w x 16"d x 68"h
28"w x 16"d x 68"h
