Artist Statement

Every human being has a level of disgust, desire, and fascination with visceral forms imbedded within them.  The reflection of our own mortality and animal-nature elicits physical reactions that in society are made taboo, but within Art a viable forum for discussion is available.  Artists such as Stuart Brisley, Melanie Manchot, Damien Hirst, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and Bill Viola have furthered this conversation, however I feel as if there are many more avenues to explore.  These artists have used the art forum as an intellectual environment for viewers to interpret work on a viscerally conscious level.  My work functions in this vein as well, however this investigation differs by focusing on issues of ingestion, invasion, parasitic growth, abjection of the body, and objectified remove from corporeal experiences.  Similar formal characteristics possessed by animals, animal bi-products, and other living things are manipulated into ambiguity or used as metaphor for sexuality, within the confines of a picture plane that alludes to deep space and yet pushes forward, denying entry to the viewer.  While the experience is novel, it leaves a taste of frustration and disgust on the tongue.

John Sutherland

Artist Statement

The main thread that runs through my work is an aesthetic stylization, developed through constant questioning, bending, and breaking of the rules of composition.  The second layer contains a mixture of elements, including a dialogue with how "true" the reality represented within a photograph is, studies of order/entropy, traces of and stand-ins for people, and so on.