2022, 30" H x 30" W x 6" D, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
2021, 18" H x 36" W x 5" D, Media: Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
The small casework that houses objects from shared memories about a particular family member. Chosen through conversations and reflection, the items were carefully crafted through hand building, carving, wheel throwing, and molds to best express the shared influence. The box is built from a material commonly used to construct home cabinets and has pockets tailored to each object where they are carefully pinned to gray flannel.
2022, 21" H x 40" W x 5" D, Media: Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
The small casework that houses objects from shared memories about a particular family member. Chosen through conversations and reflection, the items were carefully crafted through hand building, carving, wheel throwing, and molds to best express the shared influence. The box is built from a material commonly used to construct home cabinets and has pockets tailored to each object where they are carefully pinned to gray flannel.
2017, 48" H x 60" W x 60" D, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed
Porcelain objects embedded in dirt in front of laser etched cardboard.
2018, 46" x 54" x 13", Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay, Stoneware, Firing Process: Mid-range, Other, Surface: Non-ceramic, Unglazed
Plaster shovel fired on top of black stoneware encased in resin.
2023, 60" H x 36" W x 20" D, Media: Colored porcelain, Mixed Media, Non-clay, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Lustre, Non-ceramic, Unglazed
Handmade Curio Cabinet with drawers to open and explore. Drawers contain crystalized crocheted fiber, stained porcelain sand to dig through, found objects, ceramic instruments, fine hardwoods, dissected plaster molds, ceramic strata, relief plates, vials of dye, and a locked mystery.
2022, 36" H x 10" W x 12" D, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
2021, 36" H x 40" W x 30" D, Media: Colored porcelain, Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
Fired porcelain objects embedded in stained porcelain slip, excavated, then fired again. Placed on top of rusted steel stand.
2021, 20" H x 36" W x 5" D, Media: Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
The small casework that houses objects from shared memories about a particular family member. Chosen through conversations and reflection, the items were carefully crafted through hand building, carving, wheel throwing, and molds to best express the shared influence. The box is built from a material commonly used to construct home cabinets and has pockets tailored to each object where they are carefully pinned to gray flannel.
2023, 5' H x 20' W x 12" D, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
300 objects utilizing a range of ceramic technique, arranged in a free form display made of porcelain recreations of found objects sourced from my surroundings. They were selected to represent influences from the places I've lived, people I've encountered, and items that possess a personal aura. I utilize mold making primarily for its ability to borrow from the world and arrange them within a modular configuration for the audience to freely associate relationships and connections through memory, oscillating between universal and specific.
Artist Statement
I'm interested in the way a physical collection preserves and forms connections, seeking to better understand how objects influence the passage of stories tied to an individual's perception of place and identity. This led me to consider the Curio Cabinet for their historical function in academia and the basis for museums in addition to housing personal collections. What started as informal, personally guided research of the world around me revealed an industry of heritage, education, and cultural record controlled by the voices authoring archival narrative. My responses form by recreating the objects by hand or exploring means of manufacturing, borrowing items both from the personal and the universal. Through the production of multiples, I begin to understand how accumulation results from habits of daily life, drawing on the role of conscious and unconscious behavior. I adapt anthropological methods to phrase them as contributing factors in the display through simulating effects of time and playing with classical and contemporary formats. I invite viewers to reflect on the role the effects of curation and preservation play within the artwork so we may understand them as contributing factors, built upon layers of experience and chance, progressively interwoven to form a picture of today.
Bio
Brant Weiland earned his MFA at the University of Iowa, completed a Postbacc program at the University of Arkansas, and garnered a BFA from Northwest Missouri State University focusing on ceramics and sculpture. He has shown work throughout the U.S. and taken part in residencies at Red Lodge and Chautauqua. Raised on a farm in Northern Iowa, he has had a lifelong curiosity about his connection to the land and the items that resonate with his families story. This has led him to investigate the role of collections, personal heirlooms, and the recreation of objects from memories. He is a frequent traveler and an avid mountain biker, constantly seeking new experiences to share with his partner and discovering the potential his bike tires can yield.