Ben Garthus

For those of you who know Ben Garthus - he's one of my Groomsmen - and was the reason that Liz and I met. Liz moved into Ben's house as Ben was moving out - and it was at Ben and my Birthday party at Gallery Sovereign that Liz and I first spoke and became interested in one another.

He has since moved to Minneapolis where he is a graphic designer - working on a lot of the consumer product packaging that you've grown to love in the grocery store.

His art work has progressed immensely since the days of Gallery Sovereign - so I wanted to share with you his new artist statement and a link to some of his new work at the Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis. It's impressive - and I'm proud of him!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24824788@N07/
"The major focus in my work is consumer culture, over-consumption, and the byproducts produced. The United States is the embodiment of this. We do not have the long established cultural history of most other countries so consumer capitalism often seems to define us.

Over the last four years I have worked as a packaging designer for large multi-national food corporations. As a result I have an intimate love-hate relationship with consumer packaging. I experience it not only from its birth, in the design process, but to its ultimate death, as it is consumed. Although I enjoy the creative process, I am conflicted about contributing to the excessive packaging and the distortion of truth that many large companies propagate. One of my earlier series, “Confessions of Consumption,” investigates this phenomenon. Focusing on the refuse I generate allows me to make personal work using impersonal subject matter.

“A Commemoration of Convenience” also stems from my work in the packaging industry but not from the perspective of graphics; the cast plastic sculptures investigate the forms themselves. This piece is a documentation of the containers that flow through my life. It acts as a personal reminder of how much I actually participate in the consumer culture that I am critical of. Many of these objects are imbedded in our society and are difficult to avoid. It is for this reason that they are important.

Reconfiguring my artistic practice to fit my current work situation is crucial to my art. By embracing my day job and using it for inspiration, I have been able to revamp it into something more desirable. In one of my newer pieces, I used my commute to work as an art-making activity. With “Emission Control,” I attached canvas to my exhaust pipe and stained it while driving, furthering the idea of efficiency and reuse. I enjoy the daily ritual of making art even if only for short periods of time; it is a way of reclaiming the day.

In the past I considered myself to be a painter but many of my recent works are headed in sculptural direction. The more concept driven my art becomes the less important it is for me to make a distinction. I am interested in how different materials communicate ideas. I enjoy the process of learning how to create with unfamiliar substances. Each time I adopt a new material, new obstacles arise. In the process of solving those problems, different aspects of my work are brought to light.

In confronting the things that frustrate me, both in my life and in our society, I can find peace in the process. By using materials and subject matter that are a natural by product of my life, I am transforming them into something that is relevant."