This summer I intend to start work on a new series of sculptures called Appliances. There will be two subseries: Small Appliances and Major Appliances. I will post preparatory drawings for this series as I develop them over the next couple of months. I’ll start with a definition for an appliance:

Appliance (n) 1 – a piece of equipment, usually operated electrically, esp. for use in the home or for performance of domestic chores, as a refrigerator, washing machine, or toaster. (dictionary.com)

2 – [A] class of objects [that] includes items that accomplish routine household tasks, using electricity or some other energy input. These are grouped into two categories: small appliances and major appliances. Such items as toilets and sinks are not appliances, but plumbing fixtures, because they operate only with water and not with energy input. (wikipedia.com)

Method: The appliances should be approached as actual objects, that is as sculpture. Sculpture is tangible. It’s in our space. It’s a three dimensional idea. It’s palpable imagination. It intrudes and demands attention. It surrounds you and you can move around it, view it from multiple vantage points, from behind, find out it’s secrets, specifics, nuances from every angle. You can own the objects and space in your mind, take it away with you, in a way that I don’t see a viewer taking a painting of the object away with them. It affords a realm of artifice which is more poignant than the artifice of a two-dimensional representation. The material options of are endless and full of lyrical potential. The scale will remain consistent with the actual objects.

Source: The sculpture is a contemplative creation. It is not the utilitarian object, but it can mimic the utilitarian object. The choice of materials can make a statement about the purpose of the actual utilitarian object, how it is used, what earlier forms it evolved from, what its future might be, the variety of emotional responses we may have to it. Material can be played off material to drive irony, to spark a new thought about the actual object. What place does steel and plastic have in a world of stone and wood? What use for stone is there in a world of steel and plastic? Each material has inherent physical properties that makes it more suitable for a specific application than another material. What happens when a material is used for a purpose for which it is entirely unsuitable, if not the worst possible choice? What replaces plastic? What replaces steel? What replaces glass? What is the purpose of the object, the intent of the inventor, the designer, the end user. Has its intended function been co opted?

The appliance is on the human scale. Private. It is private in that it is used by an individual – it does not require a group effort to operate. Its sole purpose is to provide a function that alleviates the workload of a single human being. But the action of the individual placing a slice of bread in the toaster transcends that individual. Entire networks of electrical transmission lines, transformers, and electrical current, infrastructure, livelihoods, power plants, resources, energy, economies and geopolitics funnel into this single action of toasting a slice of bread.