Connections between the curious and the familiar offer endless opportunities for exploration. The simple pairing of two dissimilar objects sets up the stage: conflict, dialogue, action, and emotion. Contrast leads to comparison; meaning occurs through difference.
I am interested in subverting the viewing experience. Expectations implied by the rational or familiar lead to new points of speculation within the landscape of the absurd or uncanny. Ambiguous points of reference in my sculpture-- both in imagery and in scale--invite a comparison with personal memory and the structures of experience. Guided by visual clues, viewers must invent their own connections with and within my work, by calling upon previous associations and learned conventions surrounding their own understanding of experience.
Questions asked regarding the act of viewing lead to successive lines of inquiry concerning the boundary between object and its situation. The role of wall and pedestal is a significant component of the viewer’s encounter with the work. Surface, scale, color, shape and technique participate in the experience of unfolding the narrative to the viewer.
Riding the fine line between memory and fleeting notion, I seek to provide a set of animated and ambiguous experiences that incite curiosity and engage personal associations.
Bio:
Nathan Prouty received a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and an MFA from Ohio University. He has worked in various capacities at galleries in Boston and Philadelphia, as a miniature model-maker for film, and as a teacher of drawing, ceramics and sculpture. Widely exhibited nationally and abroad, Prouty works in ceramics and mixed media, using glitter, glaze, resin, and anything else that fits the bill. His research revolves around the history and baggage of craft and popular culture, while exploring ideas about the American Dream and its associated victory culture, angst, mementos, memories and our collective longing for—and self-sabotaging of—progress. Prouty is represented by The Lacoste/Keane Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Instagram: @bandipurnate
