Ol' Dirty
2013
6' x 28" x 7' Dirt, Plywood, Garbage, Mold and Worms. Canvas
by Lee M Lavy
"A core sample is used as a map to understand a history of an object, figure or mass within the landscape. In August 2014, NASA’s Mars Rover bored a hole in the surface of the Martian landscape and took a core sample for sediment analysis in order to understand the planet’s more recent geologic development. Like cutting into an architecture and exposing the materials used to frame a structure, we come to an understanding of formation. The sample then, as a smaller part of a larger whole, offers terms of relational comprehension through historical precedence. My work sits within an art historical continuum of the Landscape. It digs into the unseen forms found in the ground, cuts into post industrial remnants left forgotten, feels for past human existence imprinted in decaying ruins and displaces markers altering the ontological context of marker and site. The forms, colors, physical processes and concepts grounding the work have been shaped by Burial Practices, Abandoned Homesteads, Relics of Industry and Faultlines."
- artist statement
Lee Lavy is currently an MFA graduate student artist at UC Berkeley. His work, along with the other current MFA grads, will be exhibited in the UC Berkeley MFA Grad Exhibition on May 15, 2015 - June 15, 2015. *the work featured here may or may not be the one at the exhibition*
The MFA grad shows used to be held at the Berkeley Art Museum, but since the museum closed and isn't scheduled to open until 2016 at the new Center St. location (WAIT Whut!? more info here), the MFA show will be held at the Berkeley Art Center. Mark your calendars and be sure to check it out! I know I will!
