Exhibitions : Visiting Artist Program : Rickert-Ziebold

Matt Haugh
"Industry and Thrift "
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Surplus Gallery
September 6-8, 2007

Artist Statement

My continued exploration of iron is driven by an interest in the dynamic relationships between the natural and cultural resources that present the material before me. Since the manufacture of iron into an industrial material is a resource intensive endeavor, my engagement with it draws from what iron offers in a threefold context: material/symbol/social.

Tantamount to both labor and industry, iron and has played a significant role in shaping the modern industrial landscape. Because iron, like the landscape, is capable of being transformed and is in constant transition, it is best understood as part of an ongoing narrative that is told and retold. Through creative reuse, iron resumes its function as key agent in the transformation and creation of the historical and contemporary landscape. Fundamentally, the work presented in Industry and Thrift considers this cyclical relationship in an effort to reveal the “ecology” of iron, and encourages a critical look at an American cultural landscape in flux.

As a blacksmith, I find the questions I am asking and currently working with have much to do with the role of the handmade in a 21st Century post-industrial context. While iron is at the center of my inquiry, my current work employs a diverse range of media in support of the expression of ideas and aims to evoke a range of aesthetic/intellectual responses. Several recurring themes of recent work include memory and myth, landscape, technology, modes of transportation, labor, energy, and salvage economies.

The multimedia exhibition offers the viewer an opportunity to interact with the work and engage with conceptual concerns. As an artist whose primary medium and subject matter happens to be iron, I am excited about linking video, tintypes, textiles and other media to my continued exploration of iron, technology and industry. I look forward to sharing Industry and Thrift and to the discoveries made as I travel down the roads that research, practice and expression lead me.

Matt Haugh~ Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale ~ September 2007

Check out other exhibition venues!
Fall 2005/Spring 2006 Vergette Exhibitions
MFA Thesis Exhibitions 2006-2007
The University Museum