Cooper is joined us from Kansas City as a Sculptural artist with a focus in woodworking and ceramics.
“I’m interested in the life span of an object. I’m thinking about the materials that make up that object, and the cycles they live through. My practice struggles to think of ceramic processes in this way. Through small batch collections of found, industrial, or recycled materials and I’m passing through cycles that build on themselves. On a small scale, the material collections are transformed over and over again to create new unforeseen objects.
Zooming out, we can consider the finite amount of material on the planet, the creation of new objects will soon become dependent on the cannibalization and valorization of old objects. In both timescales, infinite combinations and outcomes exceed a single object. This relationship is reflexive. An object comes apart and reforms, but always with the potential for more change. The object is representative of the Earth’s cycles. It’s endlessness. I’m asking what can be further transformed.”