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Implement Inducing Flexure (1), (Detail), Red Oak, Steel, Steel Cables, Pulleys, Hardware, 77" x 171" x 110", 2009
Michael Donovan
Senseless Utility: Sculptural Constructions
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| Describe your work | |
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Artist Statement:
My work explores the act of preservation. I am interested in utility as a means to create a self sustained existence for my objects. I create sculptural implements that simultaneously establish and preserve an actuated state through their utility.
The work that is being performed within each structure implies permanently suspended movement. Each piece performs a designated task with no true purpose other than sustaining the level of energy generated within it. The transitory nature of these acts is negated as the latent energy is made observable in the work but is never relinquished.
Interacting within each piece structural elements become dependent on one another, actualizing a state of dynamism that is perpetually self-induced. By perpetually engaging tool with task my sculptural objects become self- contained events. Through the establishment and preservation of the latent energy within the work I intend to create awareness within the viewer making them cognizant of themselves in relation to the work and the space that it exists.
About the Artist:
Michael Donovan was born in Bridgeport, and currently resides in Cheshire, Connecticut. In 2005 he received his Bachelor of Science degree in studio art with an emphasis in sculpture from Southern Connecticut State University in where he received the Third Annual Olafs Zeidenbergs Award. Donovan has received his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut in May 2009.
Donovan is currently an adjunct faculty member of the Art Departments of Southern Connecticut State University and Manchester Community College in Connecticut where he teaches 3-Dimensional Design and Basic Sculpture. Michael also works as a sculpture conservation technician with ConservArt based out of Hamden Connecticut.
STEP UP 2010 is made possible with the generous support of Real Art Ways Members, the National Endowment for the Arts, Sandy and Howard Fromson, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the Alexander A. Goldfarb Memorial Trust, the Nimoy Foundation, the National Performance Network's Visual Artists Network, Lincoln Financial Group, Travelers and Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign.