John Knight, sculptor and DAAP School of Art senior, recently installed four works of sculpture at the DAAP Library.

Come to the DAAP Library to personally experience and appreciate the work of John Knight. The exhibit will be up through the end of March 2010. ~Jennifer Pollock, Head of the DAAP Library, UC

Artist Statement:

I regard human existence as a pessimistic struggle of anxieties participating in a relentless conflict of confidence. What I mean to say is that I find continuous aspiration within the bog of reality. Associations I conceived in regards to society, religion and politics inspire mental resolve when completing new works of art. Language can get tiring in the explanation of mental conclusions I selfishly make, it has to be stated that the culmination of both absurd process and tedious thought are encouraging and positive. As a result, I intend to allow the spectators of my work to draw their own conclusions. Feeling a raw need to link my apprehensive nature with a methodical want to settle dilemma I find throughout the modern social order, it is essential that I only provide the observers of my work with a gateway into the structuring of their own ideas.

Formulating correlations between masculinity and sexuality, I relate to the romanticized ideal of the male sculptor. Thus, my interest lays within the dominance of male gender-hood in art practice and why it is used as a possible tool for social acceptance and sexual relations. Why is it that I want to relate to sculptors that either I perceive, or society has deemed as, being misogynists’? Surely I don’t want to be considered as closely tied to Pablo Picasso or Manuel Neri in their personal treatment of the opposite gender. Yet, it is towards the historical archetype of the masculine sculptor that I wish to explore my own methodology.

With my attraction to that of the stereotypical male sculptor, I am tempted to only use materials in a dated manner. I do admit that wanting to be linked to an older sculptural practice is appealing; however, my progression as a sculptor would be limited to outmoded figural works. This being said, I believe it necessary to place my interests towards the sculptor in the contemporary realm. The use of materials in a raw manner and absurd process will fracture historical associations one might have, and present the figure in a new light. Finding that religion, masculinity and sexuality are closely linked in the human psyche, thematically I wish to assign similar meanings to my works as they are completed. ~John Knight