Brandon Vickerd
Animal Man
2015

Name: Animal Man
Brand: Brandon Vickerd
Price: 17000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Purposely diverse, my work straddles the line between high and low culture, acting as a catalyst for critical thought and addressing the failed promise of a modernist future predicated on boundless scientific advancement. Whether through craftsmanship, the creation of spectacle, or humour, my goal is to provoke the viewer into questioning the dominate myth of progress ingrained in Western world views. A satellite resting lifeless in a crater, recalling a modern day Icarus whose faith in technology lead to hubris and imminent demise as he fell back to earth; a ghost clad in chrome, cloaked in the reflective guise of the machine it seems fit to haunt; machines sporting deer antlers and locked in never ending combat – these are just some of the motifs I utilize to articulate my concerns about technology and failure. Elements of this work appear as wonderfully crude relics of past visions of the future, as vehicles or potential doomsday weapons mirroring the excesses of the cold war and the space race, while also recalling proto-modernist sculpture of the same period. I attempt to highlight our nostalgia for a past, when science held the promise of a limitless future, and not the very strange and often frightening world of tomorrow we find ourselves living in today. My work is a lexicon of no-longer-relevant representation created with a critical eye towards modernism, but also empathy for a tarnished idealism. In the past several years my exhibited projects have been diverse in form and content, including site specific interventions, kinetic sculpture, public performances and object based sculpture. My public installations deliberately do not reveal themselves as sculpture, but seek to insert an anomaly into the viewer’s experience of the everyday. Projects such as Northern Satellite trigger a discourse centered on our conflicting ways of understanding landscape by creating a narrative where a Global Positioning Satellite has collided with the earth. In gallery exhibitions I engage the audience through employing the language of monumental figurative sculpture by subverting dominant cultural narratives by creating monuments to popular culture characters (Dead Astronaut, …he was turned to steel…”), or by subverting expectations of the monument through intervention (Columbus). My most recent series Chopper evolved from my training in custom motorcycle shops, where I engaged new materials and processes gleaned from masters of the craft. Chopper borrows from motorcycle culture, mimicking the sparse exoskeletons of 1960s machines. Providing a feeling of propulsion, the sculptures in this series seem to be haunted by a lapsed future. In the gleaming hardness of custom paint and polished steel is the faint reflection of the failed project of the futurists and utopian dreamers.

Creator:

Brandon Vickerd (1977, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2015

Dimensions:

Height: 71.5 in (181.61 cm)Width: 17 in (43.18 cm)Depth: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)

Medium:

Steel,Wood

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Montreal, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU476569922

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Brandon Vickerd

Brandon Vickerd is a Hamilton based artist and Professor of Sculpture at York University, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Visual Arts and Art History. He received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1999) and his MFA from the University of Victoria (2001). Purposely diverse, his studio work straddles the line between high and low culture, acting as a catalyst for critical thought and addressing the failed promise of a modernist future predicated on boundless scientific advancement. Whether through craftsmanship, the creation of spectacle, or humor, the goal of his work is to provoke the viewer into questioning the dominate myth of progress ingrained in Western world views. Vickerd has extensive experience in large scale public art projects that seek to engage a diverse audience. A recent public performance Dance of the Cranes (Edmonton AB and Washington DC ) consisted of a choreographed dance performed by multiple high-rise construction cranes perched on top of buildings in the respective downtown cores. Staged for Nuit Blanche Edmonton and Capitol Fringe in Washington DC, these projects were the culmination of a collaborative partnership with the crane operators and developers that operated on the site. These projects are an example of collaborating with non-arts professionals to develop a project that was meaningful to both the participants and the audience. The resulting performances created the sensation that the entire city became a stage for performance, effectively immersing the audience within the spectacle. Most recently Vickerd was awarded a commission for a permanent installation by the Edmonton Arts Council. The sculpture, entitled Wildlife, consists of two bronze figures that appear to be citizens leisurely going about their day. However, upon inspection the figures reveal themselves to be composed of squirrels, raccoons, foxes, owls, and other animals working together to appear human. Humorously referencing cartoon clichés, this sculpture invites a thoughtful reflection on our relationship to nature. Wild Life challenges viewers’ perceptions by making a seemingly mundane scene extraordinary: an average-looking person morphs into a conglomeration of animals that is both shocking and intriguing and reveals the extraordinary possibilities beneath the mundane we take for granted. Vickerd has received numerous awards and grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.