David Altmejd’s sculptures weave the beautiful and the rancid into fleshy and mineral-clad tapestries of sexuality, culture, and emotional disembodiment. Traces of human figures, jewelry, minerals, bees, fruit, and sea shells populate his other-worldly creations.
Altmejd’s self described “child-like interest” in science fuels his process. He explains that despite the behemoth nature of his sculptures, he builds them microscopically. Each sculpture is an accumulation of details, each tiny element perpetuating a new series of artistic decisions.
The work is process-oriented. Altmejd does not prepare any sketches before embarking on his larger-than-life creations. In his 2014 piece, The Flux and the Puddle, the artist explains that the towering plexiglas box (11 feet tall and 22 feet wide) transformed into his studio. The work was meticulously created from the inside out, an idea the artist associates with the development of the human identity.
ART EDUCATION APPLICATION
I am currently student teaching at a local high school for the next seven weeks. My mentor teacher used the works of David Altmejd in class today with her ART II class. The students are expected to complete a weekly journal on an assigned word. This week’s word was “boundaries.”
After the students had completed their journal entry, my mentor teacher showed the class an ART 21 video on Altmejd and asked them to consider how the artist addresses the concept of boundaries in his artwork. The class discussed the role of identity in constructing and breaking boundaries. My mentor teacher guided them to the realization that boundaries remain in the realm of art and contemporary artists are expected to produce new originality.
-B. Leahy
Sound & Sweet 