Steven Randall
Region: West
My work examines the relationship between consumer,
commodity, and transformation. Within a culture of feverish
consumption and retinal impatience, I often make “fast” objects
by the slowest means possible. The resulting sculptures,
photographs, and installations represent overlooked objects
rendered in symbolic materials.
Materiality is core to my practice. Specific sculptural ingredients
have included a melted-down amalgam of contemporary
aluminum tools cast in the form of an anvil; human breath used
to preserve and chemically encrust precious photographs; and,
most recently, discarded objects collected along the border
between the Mexico and the United States to construct geodelike
artifacts. In all my work, the common thread is a drive to
reactivate materials in the effort to coalesce object, site, and
narrative in physical form.