ROSS RUDEL
b. 1960, United StatesAs a teenager in the seventies I had a persistent preoccupation with altered states of consciousness, which led to ritualistic experimentation with drugs, later to spiritual endeavours and most recently to extreme engagements with nature. I spend long stretches of time wandering alone in the mountains of Joshua Tree National Park. The desert purges and saturates my mind, alternately, constantly. Full moon nights I run in Griffith Park, often naked. The combination of endorphins, sensory deprivation and fear generates a mental state in which even the most mundane observations become revelatory.
These experiences have led me to create objects that call into question assumptions about perception. I aim to subvert purity, purify subversions, mess with gravity, and represent uncanny situations that I encounter in life. As an object making sensualist my quest is to pursue and harness intangibles when I find them. Inherently disjointed, the installations I create are connected by a thread of lineage, a continual search for revelation.
Text courtesy Baik Art.
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