 Iain Machell hangs A > B (ink, transfer print on paper, 23" x 15", 2006) in his studio. Photo by Hillary Harvey. |
You might be aware of Iain Machell's work and not even know it. Machell constructs what he calls "landscape interventions"—sculptures made of found materials like wood or stone that are removed from the natural environment, altered in some way, often with text or signage from an unlikely source like a security manual, and then replaced in the landscape. Machell's Exit, an enigmatic four-foot tall mound of stones was on display for much of 2005 on the lawn of Kingston High School, and this summer his piece
Error, a stone slab imprinted with the title of the sculpture, was exhibited as part of the "Unexpected Catskills" show curated by Portia Munson.
The idea of intervention and conflict informs not only Machell's sculptures but his drawings as well. In Basic Plan, for instance, there are simple line drawings of animals paired with six aphorisms in cursive script, from "1. Attraction" to "6. Deepening the relationship." Machell forces together these incongruent elements, creating an odd tension between the text and visual elements that cannot be dispelled by knowing their provenance (a drawing primer and a college pamphlet on interpersonal relations). Machell terms his work "investigations," as he has no preordained destination for his pieces, instead referring to them as ideas in progress, brief pauses in a continuous flow of artistic creation.
Machell teaches at SUNY Ulster and is currently serving as president of the Ulster County Arts Council.
Machell's drawings are part of a group exhibit by members of SUNY Ulster Visual Arts department, "Faculty Works," which will be shown at the Muroff Kotler Gallery at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge through December 22. (845) 687-5113. Portfolio at www.neoimages.net.
—Brian K. Mahoney
Iain Machell on his work:
Smashing Together
A lot of what happens in my drawings is the smashing together of two seemingly different things. In one of my series, the texts and diagrams are all from warfare, bombing maps, Homeland Security iconography, some are directly from photographs of aircraft, some are from security manuals, and smashing them together with really elegant images from the Book of Kells and different religions and mythologies. I put them together and see what happens. Two languages are smashing together—the verbal language telling you one thing and the visual language telling you another.
 Envision the Future, graphite on paper, 30" x 23", 2006 |
With the drawings, what's going on is this deliberate bringing together of disparate elements to create a tension to reflect some form of uneasiness, anxiety, tension. If there's an overall theme to the work, it's "Anxiety: Wake Up! These Are Anxious Times. Don't Pretend They're Not." This is an attempt to deal with my own feelings about that, but also a communication that this stuff is scary and it's all around us.
Audience Awareness
I'm aware of the audience. There's one stage when you're in the studio and you're trying to keep yourself happy about the work and how you feel about it. And then there's another stage, where you know it's going to go to an audience. You're thinking of it as communication—it's going to end up on a wall somewhere, someone's going to see it and you're going to want some feedback. That gets to be an interesting test: "How will someone else see this?" Because you're alone in your studio and you might not always have that opportunity for someone to give you feedback, and they might not be honest when they do, especially friends.
