Silas Nelson: capstone
Date
2022
Authors
Nelson, Silas, artist
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Journal ISSN
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Abstract
The artist's statement: In my body, I shoulder the burden of a heavy record: a record given to me, and the reckoning that has followed. In the clay, I capture the record in an instant moment. The body is the conduit. Hands, wrists, and the weight of a body wrestle clay into a workable submission. Forearms and fists pound and slam the clay down into immense slabs. The back, legs, and chest strain under the clay, turning it and willing it to become a body of its own. The two bodies then enter a conversation of compromise, each giving and requesting amends to the other. Each piece finds structure in either a grid or a landscape, seeming opposites that are in reality two sides of the same coin. Both are able to hold space for the same stories. My pieces vibrate between putting on airs and collapsing into the visceral. Plastic, gleaming surfaces and precise lines betray the eye, as scrutiny reveals an inescapable vulnerability in even the most manufactured pieces. Other pieces eviscerate this same vulnerability into something raw, peeling, contorting; naked with nowhere to hide.
Description
Colorado State University Art and Art History Department capstone project.
Capstone contains the artist's statement, a list of works, and images of works.
Capstone contains the artist's statement, a list of works, and images of works.
Rights Access
Subject
pottery