HARRY ANDERSON

My work as an artist has always been connected with an affinity towards the found object. I am an enthusiastic collector of mass-produced, consumer goods from the '30s, '40s and '50s. In the mid '80s, light, then function became notable elements in my work.  These works were mainly rearranged lamp components.  Later, with the help and collaboration of several glass artists, hand blown glass elements were incorporated.

The work still utilizes light as an element but is no longer the main focus. Recent work involves the juxtaposition of objects that have ceased to serve their original purpose.  They are used as components in a static arrangement to create a new work.  The objects that make up a piece are elements in a dialogue, at times playful, at time serious.  As the vision changes new elements are used.  The flee markets I haunted through the seventies and eighties and the consumer items found there, such as FIESTA WARE inspired the Installations, Sculptures and Artists Books that were my work then.  These days I find many of the materials used in the work in the industrial junk yards that have been created by the dismantling of U.S. industry. In rural areas also, tools and equipment that were once commonly in use and that are now considered useless present themselves as a resource.  These tools of our endeavors be they from the family farm or the factory are recycled to create works of art.  Elements often function in a structural manner, serving as the joints that hold a work together or a base that supports it where in the past their use was mostly visual.  When seeing something designed purely for function, the inherent beauty of the successfully engineered object speaks to and inspires me. The integrity of these objects and their ability to evoke past purpose makes their reuse as elements in my artwork all the more meaningful.