META-OBJECTS IV

These shellac-based works develop and focus the experimental material language and techniques first explored in shellac and zinc diptych Cigale + Quadrel from 1989. However, these shellac and steel works, with their insect "otherness", address the relationship of nature and culture more overtly, and directly reflect the post-industrial conditions now manifest in Chicago.

This is not intended to be merely an ecological statement but rather is a musing on the complex relationship between our physical world and our interior lives.

Evolving from Whitehead's prototypic 1882 "Meta-objects" a rematerialization strategy after conceptualism, these works shown at Lisa Sette Gallery in Scotsdale, AZ in 1991, reflect a shift in the work that occurred between 1987 and 1991. During this time, methods and materials shifted from those drawn exclusively from the industrial world and the chemical properties and references of metals, to an interest in biologically generated materials such as natural plastics like shellac, an insect product, and plant materials like the bottle gourd (lagenaria), the oldest cultivated plant in the world. This shift towards a biological element in the work grew out of a large experimental garden begun in 1987 after living in the heart of urban Chicago for several years.

The works reflect the artists ongoing interest in the morphological relation between fabrication and the natural properties of materials, informed by the historical and allegorical readings of both form and material. The work continues to address our decaying industrial environment and the pursuit of a utopian ideal, recurrent themes in work from this period.

This is not intended to be merely an ecological statement but rather is a musing on the complex relationship between our physical world and our interior lives.