Dan Devine

Lives and works in Ghent, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work explores interior and exterior spaces, their related physical/conceptual volumes and, most importantly, their reversal to outline the collision of technology and nature — a collision that often leaves us wedged in between. A frequent presence in my work is motor vehicles, which operate as both cultural artifacts and as a space separate and isolated from nature. I also often pair rigid metal parts with softer, fluid materials such as leather. Working with my hands and basic tools, I produce human-scaled objects through direct processes using simple and often industrial materials. For the leather/steel pieces, I joined metal machine parts from mechanical technology with hand-stitched leather. In Rider, the inverted motorcycle carcass is encased with volumes of leather that contain molded impressions of the machine’s own parts. In contrast, the cement pieces, Tundra and Growler, were made by constructing a mold of crashed car parts — dented and crushed fenders, hoods, and doors screwed together to create a form. Then, I poured cement into its void. When the cement hardened, the car parts were removed, revealing a record of impact. The concrete’s transformation from fluid to stone distorts the crash images and encapsulates it in a hardened remnant. The plaster castings shown here are records of the impacts of cars accidentally coming together. The folds, dents, rips and slices all occurred upon a violent, chaotic and piercing impact. In contrast, the castings are quiet...

Artwork