Al Dawson is an artist and maker from Southern California. They are an MFA candidate at California Institute of the Arts and graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in Studio Art in 2021. Much of their work combines contemporary craft and conceptual sculpture as a means of exploring material and the body. Their professional experience includes studio management, fabrication, and art handling. Al lives, works, and plays in Los Angeles, California.
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I make work that exists in the gray area between contemporary craft and sculpture. My practice combines functional design with personal narratives to varying degrees; some works act as usable tools and others are abstracted to the point of uselessness. Both personal and cultural interactions are examined through decontextualized simulacra and recontextualized materials. I explore alternative processes of working with traditional and commonplace materials like wood, paper, found materials, and everyday ephemera. I work through themes of universality, media and material, femininity and masculinity in craft, and possession through creation.
My work seeks to explore the human body as a medium and in relation to other media. I utilize design theory to emphasize the tactility of materials and apply the humanist approach of contemporary craft to sculpture. I play with the human scale that contemporary craft typically considers. Throughout my practice I explore the questions: What are the connections between humans and our materials? Our objects? |