Vaughn Randall: Mort
March 4 - April 6, 2019
These cast iron pieces are part of the Faculty Biennial 2019 presented in the main gallery space, which highlights recent projects and reflects a diverse range of studio practices by thirteen members of the Art and Art History Department at SUNY Cortland.
Two sculptures on view are part of the Mort series. Mort is the Latin root word for death. The title is a play on words also referring to mortise as in mortise and tenon, the term commonly used in woodworking. Technically, mortises are the negative spaces designed to receive the corresponding component.
These pieces deal with the phenomena of absence. The exoskeletal structures represent an ambiguous stance where the corporeal core is absent, vented out of passageways. The form conveys purification of the body through the acceptance of traumatic experience released past the multitude of portals. The suggested movement of energies within the body passed through the form allows for the potential renewal of self.
The cast iron sculpture incorporating wood blocks comments on the loss of childhood innocence. The emotional constructs that create our adult realities are built upon the foundations experienced during early childhood. When this reality is built on a flawed foundation, the collapse is imminent. Behavioral patterns stemming from these experiences guide our adult lives. The child-like castle in the sky looms above threatening inevitable destruction.
