I create sculptures inspired by an interest in how objects mediate our internal experiences and the physical world. Questioning the expression of figurative work as a millennia-long human activity, my works interrogate how the creation and possession of images of ourselves functions as behavioral practice. Clay is a potent material for these questions as it connects neolithic objects to kitsch mass-produced figurines in an unbroken chain of creative engagement with representation and objecthood. Metaphorically, I see the transformation of clay (malleable earth) to ceramic (stolid lithic material) as one that mirrors the artistic process that sees formless intangible thought become hardened externalized object. In this paradigm, the kiln acts as a fixing agent that negotiates the boundary between the imagined and the real.
Recently, I have focused on the ceramic figurines which gather dust in antique stores, existing as a sort of pseudo archive that lives between the realms of preservation and commerce. I investigate the cultural and material significance of these objects by incorporating them into my practice. Sometimes this means attending to them through recreation but shifting their scale and surface from dismissible, mass-produced knick-knack to singular, authored artwork. Other times it means incorporating them as material and refiring to underscore their materiality and recognize them as detritus from a global system of merchandising and consumerism that continues in many ways to irreparably impact our environment. My work with these subjects hopes to problematize and reveal the often blithely consumed ceramic figurines as a culturally significant system of mass media.
Contact
Email: swcheek@gmail.com
Education
Alfred University, MFA, 2024
University of Colorado Boulder, Post-Bac Certificate, 2022
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2016