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MEET RYAN: DIVING INTO POOLS OF GLOWING COLOR
OCTOBER 15, 2019
Humor-inspired artist who “wants to ride a zebra”, will NOT judge you for touching his works
Q1. What inspires your work now?
Right now I almost feel the world I create is feeding itself. I’ll make one thing and the following piece is inspired by it — they are like a family. I have walls to fill, and when my walls are full, I take them down and start again.
Q2. If someone picks one of your pieces for their home, how do you want them to interact and treat your artwork?
I imagine people interacting with my work in a textile kind of way. I don’t think they’re precious, I think they’re meant to be touched, to be talked to. I like the idea of somebody touching the work every morning, and maybe that will infuse them with a little joy.
Some of my work are meant to be touched — I make a lot of silicone objects, and silicone rubber naturally flops and slaps and there’s a humor there, they need to be played with.
Q3. How do you choose your Material?
I use materials that are exciting to me. I’m using a lot of epoxy clay, a two part buddy that essentially is clay. I use this plastic fiber mixture called sculptamold, which can pick up brushstrokes and create this fluffy, soft, rock texture. Epoxy resin has this shine to it so putting it next to that tough rocky quality create satisfying position.
There’s also a gold mine of trash out in New York City. There are crazy things that I just need to put in my pocket — like this tiny lightning bolt. The palette of plastic objects interests me, it seems very limited, I can collect these things and they are different shapes of all the same colors — you have fluorescent orange, a lot of greens and yellows out there, and maybe some blues.
Q4. You use a lot of bright colors, why?
The brightness of my colors infuse electricity into my work, giving them an energy and glow. The colors come after the shape and line. My work is heavily action-reaction, it really feels like I’m playing a game until I finally reach this end that makes me feel kind of whole, and that’s kind of the goal.
Q5. How do you think aliens would react to your art?
I hope they’ll like it — I think the classic green martian guy will really have fun here. Maybe he’ll help me make my work move, or maybe they’ll move for him.
I’m interested in multi-sensory experience. I do eventually want my work to move and make sounds.
Written by Sunny Liu
