This is my Artist's Statement:

Artist’s Statement:

Looking at our human condition, I feel an unusual relation to our consumer culture which allows our culture to have probably the highest standard of living in earthly history.  We depend on many things I group together as “tools” which mechanically give us the ability to sustain this high standard of living.

With fabricated industrial aluminum I have created:  life jackets, abstract shapes I call “tools,” dream pieces, bridge pilings, furniture, and wire mechanisms reflective of electrical systems.  For me these sculptures are metaphors for the controls and powers that exist amongst human beings:  relationships.

The working process of fabricated materials challenges me.  It is a process of creating & building things that exist in real space.  There is a sense of manipulating materials, the engineering of something standing, balanced, aesthetic, and images which communicate ideas about specific feelings.  This is my interest in truth and reality. 

                               Art is human attempt to control nature…

The telephone/electric poles with wires wrapped in various assemblages are my latest series of sculptures.  My first electric pole piece was “EmergencyStop,”  a larger 4 ft x 5 ft x 9 ft scale of electric poles too close together such that the wires drooped in-between each pole.  My thinking was that when the “flow” of electricity stops, the poles actually come closer together as if there is an analogous motion of cars coming to an ‘emergency stop’ on a freeway.  Speeding cars have more space between them, but when cars stop, the space diminishes to a minimal.  When the electricity stops, the electric poles gather closer together and the in-between stretched wires become drooped toward the ground.

So there is a similar system of sculptures which are somewhat different, yet all relate to the same concept:  questioning, metaphorically electricity, the use of power and what happens when there is ‘no power,’  ‘Who’ or ‘What’ is in control here.

Otherwise, the visual stimuli of  the aluminum surface texture reflecting local light becomes an eye candy of interest, that value exceeds material, fabrication skills eliminated, and hopefully process enlightened.     mic knight020321.

Additional information: 

The installation slides show groups of consumer items, many found objects, hanging in spaces to create an environment.  Usually there is a combination of aluminum fabricated sculptures interspersed amongst the found/discarded consumer items, giving rise to questions of what does all this mean.  Academically, dealing with the space, defined by the elements of composition & design is one interpretation.  Psychologically the individual components mixed together reflect/evoke various states of personal relationships.  Commercially, a relative value scale of why or what can be done with the environment and materials becomes a question.

The installation of  ““Y” the “Y” in Ybor” was my interpretation of part of the play and adapting found materials and a created painting, to create the feeling of some events within the play.   There was the archway door framed painting of Bakunin’s face for the background, hanging typewriter, hanging fruit equating to the bolita numbers, tobacco from cigar cuttings strewn around adding the sense of smell to the environment, chair, desk, etc. to reflect the Tampa and specifically the authors relationship to the cigar rolling industries history.  There is the combination of aluminum fabrications amongst found objects.

Each installation is unique.  However, you can see a certain train of though, when proposing such a space, I would like to have several fabricated industrial aluminum sculptures interspersed with other found objects to create a unique feeling to the environment.

My proposal would have a combination of smaller, individual signature pieces, and an installation which would relate respectively to each other.  And depending on current fabricating, if a new piece can be completed within the designated time limit for inclusion in the show.

Thanks,

 Mic Knight

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        Mic Knight, Videographer