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Artists maintain diverse relationships with their material vendors.  These marriages can be affectionate or defiant in nature, or exist purely out of convenience.  Whether a store supplies material inspiration, social metaphors, or simply predicts the default dimensions of artwork, the residue of its influence is always present.

Mayen Alcantara

Through sculpture, video, sound, drawings, and the collection of artifacts, my work explores an expanded notion of terrain, re-imagining a history of how the land has changed in response to use and natural forces.  The work ranges from a video mapping locations within the Providence Place Mall using a lexicon of body movements derived from bees, to a 2500 square foot outdoor installation of solar powered LED lights that "re-contours" the topography of a section of the Fidelity campus.  It reflects a hybrid form of artistic practice that straddles scientific inquiry and aimless wandering.

www.mayenalcantara.com

Nathaniel T. Chace

The product of hours of continuous knife throwing, the intension of this piece was to repeat the action of throwing a single blade at a 4 x 8’ sheet of plywood until the board was no longer structurally sound. Partly about finding a meditative state within a seemingly violent action, this piece was meant to also speak about the massive impact that one small act, in repetition, can have on a larger whole.

Micaelan Davis

As a designer, I am interested in systems and the inherent interdependence between parts. My typical approach to a project is highly controlled with many of the decisions made before construction begins. During my time at RISD, I have tried to be more conscious of my design process and more open to learning through the making process. In this vein, the lounge chair is very much a product of its process.                     

I began with an investigation into how to connect plastic tubing to itself. The initial sample was painstakingly woven by hand but I realized there could be interesting potential in actually weaving the material on the loom. By using a warp-faced technique, the vinyl, which in this case is the weft, is only visible as a bump until it protrudes from the ends of the weave. The density of strands also ensures the structural integrity of the system. As I set up the loom and began to weave, I had the proportions of the body in mind but the dimensions of the piece were mainly driven by intuition. Once the woven structure was removed from the loom I responded to its movement and shape in designing the metal supporting structure and attachment system.    

The investigation actually yielded two projects, the lounge chair being one of them; and has gone on to inspire a third foray into the use of fibers in furniture design. I find the fundamental systems that determine the woven structure’s pattern and form quite interesting, especially how they can yield a large variety of outputs from small changes in input. The straightforward simplicity of the final product is beautiful in its relationship to the nuanced process from which it came. 

sharethearmrest.blogspot.com

Nicholas Dertien

Some people might believe that I’m an adrenaline junkie; this is not the case.  I am in truth a very meditative person.  In moments of deep and solitude reflection I come upon an energy that has such force that it overwhelms my senses.  I feel it vibrate across my flesh and throb on my fingertips and the soles of my feet.   These sensations (coming out of purposeful meditation) are very much my own. But as any passion, I have always strived to share them.

I find that at the core of these meditations I’m forcing my mind to break though thresholds of perception, so I began to do actions that show my body breaking through thresholds in the physical world. My work becomes an opposition to meditation; my actions embody the energy of my personal reverie. In doing I find the “physical knowledge” and peak experiences that viewers can project themselves into.

I am consistently challenging the limiting finite space of my body and its ability to filter the sensations of the world.  

Gregory Fong

In many instances, the language of a work of art is considered to be the material it is made from. Critical to this notion is the history of the material as it is altered by the artist. Often overlooked, however, is the detritus of production- the waste parts of process. Double Vision presents a reconstruction of studio garbage, mirrored by a video loop of the original object. Under most circumstances, when an object is identified as a forgery the counterfeiter has failed because his or her work has been detected. Here, however, the difference between the original and its replica in no way affects the usability of the object and instead the emphasis is centered around production. Through reproduction, an attempt is made reframe materiality: the material of the replica is the object it is based upon, and an easily overlooked object is a sculpture in its own right.                 

www.hecka.net

Cooper Holoweski

Plastic is a support structure of our lives.  Highway expansion creates jobs and increases the overall quality of life.  Food comes from the supermarket.  There is a certain faith we assign not only to the materials we use but the ideology that leads to their proliferation.    

THIS IS NEW AND IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER  

Science has proven it.    

                           

www.thisisprogress.net

Casey Lynch

My work for this show is two-sided; an illuminated void proposed to the viewer initially, and the "back of the house" that reveals its construction.  I combine the algebraic concept of the conic section with the phenomenological presence of intensely bright light, while allowing standardized building materials to determine the dimensions of the piece.  By arranging found (bought) materials to fit a mathematical model, the piece asks if it is the predetermined social-structures we are given that actuate the truth we seek, as well as how we find and describe it.             

www.caseylynchart.com

Lauren Tickle

My work is a visual representation of grief’s pilgrimage in the wake of death.  I make objects that represent the stages of this journey.  Death is often represented in art objects or acts as a symbol for the transience of life.  The work metaphorically maps demise, healing and everywhere in-between.  My objects rely on process, just as the healing process is more important than death.  So does the process of making supersede the completion of one specific object. This is an investigation of objects as metaphor, document, and ritual prop to illustrate the cycle of life and its impact on those left behind.  It also records a personal pilgrimage in recognition of the impermanence of life and prompts the restoration of beauty through growth and remembrance.  In losing something special one can either be consumed by sorrow or find solace once again.  My work is an attempt at the latter by constructing demise and repairing what was lost.

Clement Valla

I treat existing artifacts, existing site conditions, or market relationships as programmable systems.  When my programs run their course, inherent contradictions and absurd situations result from the very structure of the system itself.

Highway billboards employ a limited vocabulary to produce variations of a simple message. This simple message is meant to entice consumption.  McDunCo is a program that endlessly recombines the elements of highway signs–shape, size, background colors, fonts, images, brand names, slogans–to push the inherent logic of the system to the point of irrationality. The resulting signs are both familiar and foreign, rational and surreal.

100USD, 90USD, 60USD, uses 3 'Oil-Painting Factories' in Xiamen, China that typically reproduce canonical Western Paintings, though they also create custom portraits from digital files. An image generated by McDunCo was sent via email to these 3 factories; each produced a painting of the image. The resulting artifacts provoke the idea that a copy is in fact an original.

www.clementvalla.com

Colin Williams

Always present but frequently forgotten, there exists a place on every main street leaving downtown; it is near the discount stores, pawn shops, and blank industrial buildings where things begin to fall apart.  It is here that you can see the decay of consumerism.  My work attempts to expose these places and to bring a new significance to them.  Using illustration, the buildings take on a new shape.  They’re flattened out and take on a new, but similar meaning.  These shops and buildings are still largely insignificant in our fast paced consumer world, but through illustration they receive a new treatment and significance in a completely foreign environment.

www.colinwilliams.org