Biennial Artist: Ethan Hayes-Chute
Run Time: 9:20
Ethan Hayes-Chute (United States, born 1982), Hermitage, 2009, mixed media, variable. Lent by the artist.
This work is all about the materials. For the structures in these new installations, I concentrate on harvesting lumber from abandoned woodpiles, dumpsters, construction sites, recycling centers, and the basements, garages, and barns of friends and family. Planks and studs, doors and windows, nails and shingles, of any size or shape, are all used in some way or another to create the work that continually evolves as new materials are discovered. The furnishings for the newly created shack are collected in a similar fashion: picked up at yard sales and flea markets, scrounged from dumpsters and thrift stores, or built from scratch. Samples of everyone else’s lives now make up a single new one.
Although my previous paintings and miniature sculptures are mucuh smaller in scale, these new installation pieces propel my work into “life-size” proportions. This new scale enables the viewer to have a more complete interaction with the piece on both a physical and visual level. It further piques my curiosity about “handmade” isolated hermitages and do-it-yourself ingenuity. Further, it provides a reconsideration of the relationship between private and public, interior and exterior. Having visited a number of cabins similar to this one over the years, my interest lies in conveying my own experiences to the museum visitor. The threat of trespassing has been removed, but only on a legal level. A visit to the cabin may evoke either a feeling of cozy familiarity or cold unease.
Watch Ethan’s artist talk.