Continuing through August 25, 2018
The child of a long line of California tombstone carvers, artist Jaydan Moore explains, “I grew up watching people make accommodations for loved ones, and turn their history into an object.” Moore’s new exhibition, Dust reflects this process, and explores how memory and emotional connection is related to objects, particularly family heirlooms. Working primarily with silver-plated tableware, mainly platters, Moore distorts these found objects into new artistic forms. Moore sometimes welds several platters into a larger, amorphous shape, experimenting with patterns and patinas. In other pieces Moore removes portions of the objects to reveal existing patterns or create new ones.
While Moore manipulates objects which have or once had meaning and memory attached to them, his work tends to highlight rather than erase the current emotional presence of the pieces themselves. It's as if he is honoring past stories and memories while inserting his own presence. He states, “In this series, I’m letting my own personal narrative of how I connect with the material be much more a part of what the viewer sees, or how I talk about it. My fingerprints are now becoming patina marks on all of this.”
These familiar objects don’t necessarily hold a specific emotional history for each viewer, yet they draw on a generic sense of nostalgia while also being genuinely beautiful and intriguing aesthetic objects.
The exhibition also contains a series of Moore’s intaglio prints and pencil drawings which incorporate tableware patterns from some of the metal objects he uses in his other pieces. The emotional and nostalgic impact is not as strong in these works, but they remain a visually alluring counterpart to the stunning objects featured in Dust.
