Instagram: @t_s_ekern
TAYLOR EKERN
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is not autobiographical, but it is personal. My interdisciplinary work is rooted in fabrication, from performance, to video and site specific sculptural installations the hand of the fabricator is present.
A wide variety of subjects that pertain to my life make up the content of my work. This is broad but includes anything from the love I feel for someone to my inability to connect to my surrounding environment. I seek to transform my thoughts and feelings on the subjects of my life into the fabricated objects and imagery I use to create and display meaning.
My work assesses and addresses the subject of institutions in ways which create conflict. These social institutions pertaining to education, politics, religion, and family. I seek to interpose ubiquitously personal dynamics within these institutions to create conflict. The subjects of my work are derived from mundane experiences. Art is too often understood as peripheral to the concerns of the non-art-trained audience and I consider this a problem I wish to mitigate. By deriving the work I create from the mundane, I hope to create space for both art-trained and non-art-trained audience members. I attempt to challenge conventions that isolate the artist to the white cube presentational space because I believe that outside of this space is where these audiences most successfully come together. This also allows me as an artist to meet the audience on their own terms.
The Rules I set for myself:
1. Consider the intimate relationship between sculpture and drawing.
2. Allow the idea to dictate the material choices.
3. Examine and challenge the institutions we inhabit (education, politics, religion, family).
4. You must have a reason for each decision you make in regards to the work as these decisions provide context.
5. Do not divide yourself from your audience. Push yourself outside the white cube. For this reason, sculpture in public space is to be considered a preferred display method.
My Order of Operations
I. Begin with the Broad Subject:
Love, Absence of Place, Distance, Disorientation, Institutions
II. Consider the Location of the Final Product (this can be anywhere)
III. Consider the Materials:
Metal, Neon, Argon, My Body, Wood, Projection, Installation, Photography, Time, Fabric
PREVIOUS WORKS
“A Strange Weakness” | Metalwork, Image Projection | 2023
The Light Recedes Before Us | Neon Installation | 2025
Industry of the Ordinary Residency At SoNa Contemporary Art Gallery, Chicago