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Ian Pedigo composes sculptures and wall works in two and three dimensions from found matter that range from the natural – scraps of wood, rocks, bamboo, to the manmade; cardboard, magazine clippings, swatches of cloth, Plexiglas.
Pedigo’s sculptures express a visual and physical fragility, removed from their original context the detrital parts are incorporated into new forms that through their associative qualities generate a dialogue about the literal, physical and imaginative possibilities of objects.
The work points to an awareness of a reality that is both temporal and fluctuating; for Pedigo the significance of the new forms lie in their potential in the present moment. As Pedigo states our memories become embodied within the materiality of the object itself, leaving it as a repository of our thoughts or ideas. This is mirrored in the artists working process, which unfolds over a period of time.
The chosen materials with their muted tones, which speak of a recent past or a faded history, are composed into totemic structures or are flattened into two dimensional collages. Through his practice Pedigo addresses the temporal potentiality of objects as well as their spatial qualities; complicating sculptures traditional occupation of space. In a recent move the artist has begun to address the totality of the spaces within which the work is situated so that the works themselves, as well as the parts within each, relate physically and associatively with each other whilst disrupting any coherent spatial continuum.
Three-dimensional works incorporate 2-d elements that expand from floor to wall, space conflates or explodes. Often you are encouraged to read the 3-dimensional works as images, constellations or maps, alternatively magazine clippings of expansive landscapes are cropped, framed and hung on the wall to emphasize the vertical flatness. Materials associated with the floor; linoleum, carpet, stones are elevated to the wall and contained in a frame.
Pedigos practice has been discussed in relation to the unmonumental, as evoking architectural and natural structures and as containing mystical and totemic qualities that echo the shamanic tendencies of Bueys. What the work has is a latent potential; a capacity to reframe that which we thought we knew, in an investigation of the cognitive possibilities of an alternative view.
Ian Pedigo lives and works in New York, he studied at The University of Texas at Austin. He has had solo international exhibitions in America, Italy, Canada, France and the UK. The Southern Alberta Art Gallery, has, recently published the artists first monograph, with texts by Chris Sharp and Lillian Davies. Articles and features on the artist have been seen in ArtForum, Frieze, Time Out, The Village Voice, Art in America and more. This is Pedigo’s second exhibition at the gallery.