Alec Schweiger

Artist Statement

I explore relationships between things and people by creating objects, sculptures and assemblages that primarily reside within the language of function. Legitimately functional objects are often manipulated or displayed in ways that deny or reinvent their purposeful use. These interventions involving recognizable or pre-existing things inspires an uncanny ambiguity of form that allows for an investigation into why I find things to be important, often asking questions rather than providing answers. What makes an object meaningful? Why can’t I throw away cardboard boxes?

Looking to fundamental aspects of things like use, form, and perceived permanence, I assess the ways these immediate qualities shape perceptions of value or personal connection with an object. By situating unlike materials in conversation with each other to solve physical problems, my work creates opportunities for allegorical references to relationships between and beyond tactile material. By revealing and acknowledging hierarchies of material and objects, the work opens a space for the consideration of the hierarchies inherent in our social constructs at large.

Beginning with a single object of my making, or a pre-existing object/material that holds my attention, I build complex assemblages and systems of display in response. I am particularly compelled by packaging for its integral, yet disposable, role in everyday life – the most complex, thoughtfully designed, non-objects we encounter regularly. I find that the commonly indifferent attitudes towards these highly specific and useful packaging materials serve as a sound surrogate for the attitudes I see afforded to real objects that at one time may have been passed from one generation to another, but rarely are now.