Curatorial Statement
Welcome back to the show that never ends. We’re so glad you could attend! Step Inside! Step Inside!
For October the Loft Gallery is transformed into a cabinet of curiosities. A wunderkammer filled with transformed flotsam and jetsam by the hands of 21st Century makers, to borrow terms from the artist. This exhibit is not the constructed vision of a curator, rather it is the desire to present the physical evidence of a dialogue between two makers and partners, Matt Wilt and Melody Ellis.
Mechanisms whir slowly, turning quietly on their axis while a reinterpretation of the iconic figure Mr. Punch watches from nearby, his club poised and ready to emphasize his point with brute force. Each object inspires awe and lures the viewer deeper into a well of process and hinges, refinement and surface, regardless of categorization. Figure, tile, mechanism–all have been plucked from some other context and are now pinned against a white backdrop. Perhaps they have been lifted from worlds previously populated by H.G. Wells and Jan Svankmajer. Both bodies of work speak to the idea of otherness in a universal language. The work assumes the role of mirror as it reflects our contemporary anthropology and creates a dichotomic air of considered frenzy. Like a child viewers will hurry toward the objects and reach out to explore the potential, desiring to know each working part and the effect exerted on the whole; but seeing the thoughtful delicacy reverence will win out and pause the investigative fingers. Fingers will only hover in the air as eyes explore and drink in every hinge, every potential movement, every block of color.