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Jeff Schmuki: Extractive Figures
Raised in the Arizona Sonoran Desert, I was taught to tread lightly upon the fragile desert crust, which takes decades to form. Years later, Hurricane Katrina's wind and water carried off everything that allowed us to live without concern for what we were doing; only before and after was left, and nothing in between. Environmental collapse made real.
"Extractive Figures" explores the tension between destruction and regeneration. Agents of extraction are embedded within hand-built and wheel-thrown landscapes composed of prospected clay and glazes made with mine tailings that blister and crawl. These tableaus reference sites of industrial extraction and environmental damage. The figures witness their own undoing as malformed landscapes consume them, evoking images of bleached coral reefs, polluted fields, and ruins reclaimed by nature through beautiful decay.
Two Identical Souls. 12.5” x 11” x 11”
Brood. 16” x 11” x 12”
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Under A Blue Moon. 14.5” x 9.5” x 10”
AshLand. 15.5” x 13” x 12”
The Angelus. 23" x 10" x 14"
Undoings: A Series of Remote Controlled & Obstacle Avoidance Bots
Programmed and remote-controlled two-wheel Arduino robots. Blending new technology with hand-built and found ceramics, these works can be taken into public space and handed over for others to drive and spin creating opportunities for social engagement. Works also can rest stationary on a pedestal or shelf.
Undoings #5 & #8
^2 hand-built and found ceramics with sculptural glazes. 11" h
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Arduino Figurine Waltz
Arduino Porcelain Figurines Created during a CRETA Rome Residency in Rome, Italy. Inspired by Rome’s collision of the eternal and contemporary, found porcelain figurines are recontextualized and refashioned. As a result, their superficial nature is obscured. Placed onto remote-controlled Arduino platforms and driven in the street gives the figurines life beyond their mass-produced, static origins and reinserts them into the life of the city.
Special Thanks to the Piano Society for the use of Fredrick Chopin's Waltz in E-flat major recorded by Vetter, H.