curating

Collection in Focus: The Problem With Objects, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA

A curated talk given on selections from the Henry's Small Scale Sculpture collection.

http://mail.henryartcollections.org/events/past_event/969/2014

In our built environment, it is very hard to identify an object that is not, in one way or another, in service within its culturally determined role. The overarching utility of objects, and our expectation of acting out that utility, primarily defines the way we assign value to the objects we surround ourselves.

These cultural expectations seep into the content and perception of contemporary sculpture. Through linkages in material, process, and aesthetics, the language of utilitarian objects cross-pollinate with the non-utilitarian, disorienting our cultural assumptions regarding the autonomy, use value, and authenticity of the sculptural object.

Digital ≈ Soft, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA

Digital Soft is a group show that is built around a slightly incongruous title in which each word, respectively, connotes a certain type of plasticity that conjures up very different mental images and ways of making. Hailing from Seattle, the four Digital Soft artists demonstrate a way of working that, while conceptually informed by contemporary digital realities and a booming Seattle tech economy, is also strongly rooted in “place” and the geographic uniqueness of the Pacific Northwest. While their work carries strong visual references to digital aesthetics, and in some cases digital process, the end results are largely manifested through the use of materials and process that are employed with a reverence for nature, craft, tactility, process and relational constructs.

Digital ≈ Soft, installation view