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Richard Swanson: Artist Statement
The diverse nature of my sculptural output is due in part to my penchant
for exploring new materials. I utilize the natural tendencies
of materials such as burdock (wants to clump) and straw (wants to scatter)
but also persuade them to do the unexpected--insubstantial materials
totter skyward, solid metal pieces rock or sway with the slightest touch
or breeze. Other materials are coaxed to balance, top-like, or
soar in an arching sequence of repetitive forms reminiscent of time-lapse
images.
The rhythms set up by these interactions of form and space are of perpetual
interest to me and constitute a major part of my aesthetic. Use
of an installation format allows me to extend these rhythmic interactions,
engaging an entire space with forms rising from the floor, springing
from the walls and suspended from the ceiling. I want the viewer
to feel a sense of enchantment upon entering a truly novel environment.
Collaborations with choreographers are a natural extension of these
sculptural explorations. Dancers animate the sculptures and the
sculptures allow the dancers to move in unfamiliar ways, encouraging
both sculptor and dancer to explore new rhythmic possibilities, while
adding dimension to an age old concern of the sculptor--that of breathing
life into inanimate material.
My recent large-scale work in metal utilizes rectilinear shapes connected
by curved lines to create rhythms that are more eccentric than in previous
work. I think of these new sculptures as three dimensional ink
drawings. I also think of them as jazz phrases--no hidden meanings,
just something pure, lyrical, and sometimes loopy, with the interval
between notes as essential as the notes themselves.
Biography | Resume | Artist's Statement
Metal Sculpture |Multimedia
Sculpture | Installations | Dance
Collaborations | Landscape Projects
Sculptural Teapots | About the Artist | Email Richard
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