My contribution to the exhibition Darkslide in 2017 at Tri-C Community College -an exhibition Brian Sarama. Prompted by an object - a bare skateboard deck, artists in the show were asked to respond to the form as they saw fit. Instead of using the deck as a canvas or surface, I decided to address the object through its form and function. By kerf-cutting the deck, I was able to completely flatten it, and by removing a slim triangle from the center of the board I was able to create roughly a 5 degree bend in the board. By veneering over the entire form, the deck appears nearly back to its original form. In flattening the plywood’s lamination and altering the potential alignment of the boards wheels, I impose not only an increased delicacy, but also a directionality. A curtail of the freedom suggested by the initial object. Freedom with a radius.
Black walnut, White Oak, black and red dye pigment
2017
There’s something about being so close to the truth without actually being there. Finessing untruth, and diverting with subtle differences into an arena that seems reasonable.
The o2o A4 project for the CICA Museum in South Korea was an international project in which artists were invited to develop projects using standard A4 paper. My proposal included printing instructions and my artist bio, stapling it to the display wall, tearing it off, stapling it again, tearing it off, and repeating that process until that paper was reduced to nothing, as displayed in the next two photos.
Displayed text from the actual installation:
”Hunter L. V. Elliott
hunterlvelliott.com
Instructions:
1. Print this statement in its entirety.
2. Designate a space for the work approximately 63 cm x 89 cm (3x the size of an A4 piece of paper). The work’s orientation can be horizontal or vertical depending on available space. If there is an abundance of extra space in the gallery location, the work area can be expanded in direct proportion to the A4 paper’s measurements.
3. Staple this printout once in each of its four corners in the direct center of the designated work space.
4. Tear the statement from the wall, leaving the staples and any bits of paper removed by the action.
5. Staple remaining piece of paper over and over in different locations, randomizing its location each time.
6. Continue tearing off and re-stapling page until scraps of paper are no larger than 3 cm².
Statement: My work explores those systems that withhold – where something loses its stability, is lost in interpretation, or deleted, causing a reinterpretation. This lossy process occurs when we speak, when we write, when we record histories, when we upload a photo to the internet, even when we take a photo in the first place. Understanding how a message gets to the point in which we see it, hear it, or speak it, informs how we accept and absorb it. Exploring more transparent mode of communication could lead to a more empathetic way of living.
By presenting and allowing my words to be dissected, and ultimately abstracted, I allow their meaning to be obfuscated and marginalized. Although the ideas still remain posted to the wall, they exist in their original literary form only to those who already know them. To those unaware this piece is a texture. It is a performance. It is a piece about language, but an unclear language. It could seem violent, and it is.
While allowing this destruction and reformation of my ideas, I am still working within a system. A system built on art-historical foundations that are subverted to achieve a dissociative relationship to the prompt. Although encouraged to expand, my work aims to shrink. By shattering, it expands spacially, but by expanding it permanently loses its clarity.
Digital Photograph
’Quarter-sawn onion presented on quarter sawn oak board’
This unfinished/ongoing investigation utilizes techniques used in manufacturing and other fields, applied to unconventional objects like food.
Digital photograph
This unfinished/ongoing investigation utilizes techniques used in manufacturing and other fields, applied to unconventional objects like food.
Digital photograph
altered banana (straightened)
This unfinished/ongoing investigation utilizes techniques used in manufacturing and other fields, applied to unconventional objects like food.
Acrylic, tape
Starting with a standard-sized acrylic panel, a wide section of tape that matches the acrylic sheets dimensions is condensed into a smaller proportion within the frame of the sheet.