A former undergraduate classmate of mine, Aaron Held, recently completed his Masters at Southern Illinois at Edwardsville. His work always struck a chord with me with it's primitive, insect-like structure. Bone Bike, which he made when we were at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, still stands out as one of the most memorable pieces any of my peers made. The corresponding postcard from his senior show still hangs on my wall seven years later.
Having not seen his work again until now, I was intrigued to see both the persistence and evolution of those themes in his recent graduate exhibition. Unfortunately I didn't get to attend in person, so the
Flickr set will have to satisfy me...for now.
Aaron always seemed to be exploring the tense relationship between organic structures and mechanics in his undergraduate pieces. The skeletal nature of some of his early metal works, and the literal translation of a bovine skeleton into a functional-looking bicycle seemed to culminate this exploration. They were often precise, yet primitive, heavily wrought, yet organic in their perceived motion.
His most recent work seems to have come at these same ideas from a variety of different angles. Where his earlier works appeared dense and impossibly hard, they now seem as light as kites. But the shapes are strikingly similar. For example, "Piston Shrimp," made from steel, mulberry paper and hardware, is a thin, angelic version of a scorpion tail-like structure I recall from years ago that was constructed from much heavier materials and partially buried in sand. That's not to say Held is spinning his wheels, rather, he seems to be opening up his material and form explorations into some exciting new territory.
Other works, such as the "Air Induction Vents" and "Gear Wall" seem to make a clear decision to explore mechanics and shape devoid of the more organic elements present elsewhere in the collection. Surprisingly, however, even these seemingly pure mechanical pieces seem to hold some element of a future Matrix-like organic-ness, as the world around us continues to blur the lines between prosthetic and biological structures. "Air Induction Vents," "First" and "Third" (against the right wall in the image of the exhibition set-up) could almost be mistaken for spinal columns not unlike his original Bone Bike.
And as if to punctuate the departure from his previously earth-bound works, is Held's suspended "Turbine Lure," a mechanical eye-like being that looks part camera, part fish, part spaceship, but all-knowing. As a lure, it seems to be caught in a constant attraction/repulsion state between it's biological familiarity and chilling mechanical frame.
I'm an Interaction Design Lead at a renowned innovation firm in Chicago. I've worked as a writer, strategist and general disseminator of anticipatory design science for a wide variety of industries and clients.
Comments 0 Comments