Artist Statement 08

Exploration and discovery is integral to my art making process. In my work I am a hunter and gatherer of both discarded materials and the ephemera of consumer society. I’m a pilgrim and voyager to mostly forgotten places in both the natural world and the fiercely domestic, and I appropriate these discoveries into my personal mythos. I’m also a builder, recreating these materials as new.

Using the model of an environmental sociologist I use my physicality to explore the material landscape. I collect and forage liquor bottles, lottery tickets, discarded packaging and cardboard and treasure the dumpster-dive jackpot. I strive for thoughtful repurposing of objects that were made to be thrown away. Like an anthropologist, I look for information that resides in the waste left behind, and through repurposing a new shape and character emerges. I don’t intend to elevate the consideration of garbage in a banal way.

Gathering a sense of place in a presumably tiny niche of global space is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. I document these journeys with photographs, collected bits of ephemera, make notes, and sometimes talk to strangers. I’m fascinated by the amount of things thrown away, especially in light of elaborate recycling programs offered in most major cities. Environmentalism and “green” has made our society increasingly aware of our impact on nature, however, we still remain mostly disconnected. What I am most interested in is the relationship of our personal ecology inside of a highly material-based world.

In the studio, these journeys and collections build up to create sculptural narratives, performances, and photos. The installations strive to comment on ideas in a way that is sometimes offbeat and humorous, sometimes dark and contemplative.

My work is a continuous investigation of creating myths within environmentally sensitive spaces that held or hold promise as beautiful spaces for people to go to and that are often taken for granted. These spaces can be reservoirs, parks, graveyards, vacant lots, wooded areas surrounding golf courses and seemingly, innocuous ball fields. In my work pilgrimages, voyages and physical work are very important to building a relationship to the site. Most often it is a meditative process with hopes of discovery of a place that I find a personal connection with. The journey is vital to the building of a personal mythology to a specific place and helps to form a system of personal symbols. Much of this process is intuitive and has distinct ties to my personal history.

Meaghan Harrison
Spring 2008