Tim Rickett

Lives and works in Aberdeen, SD, USA

Artist statement

As an interdisciplinary artist, my creative practice is centered around the disassembly and dismantling of objects, materials, and wider social systems. As a child of the Midwest, I grew up surrounded by the mythologies of the American frontier, from the hyper-masculine cowboys traversing the land to the persistent spirit of the pioneers, overlooking the underlying exploitation of land and culture. As time passes, we lose meaning, memories, and truth in our stories, where they become idealized or artificial versions of what once was. These ideals, and the ways we excuse them, are a reflection of ourselves, both who we were and who we have become as a society. My concepts explore this phenomenon through the romanticization and resilience of Midwest notions and ephemera. Using the material language of childhood and roadside culture, including toys, manmade materials, and text, my work critiques the systemic violence of the West through humor. By playing with what has survived and what can be reproduced, copied, and made into something new, my work recontextualizes the repetitions of history and legend to challenge the preconceived notions our society holds. These reconstructions create connections and stories, yet accentuating their flaws and disparities. Bio: Tim Rickett is an artist and educator based in Northeastern South Dakota. Through an interdisciplinary practice, he explores ideas of nostalgia, history, and material culture. He graduated from Hastings College with a...

Artwork