Remnants of the Real: Grazed Pasture

Ahead lies a pasture, barren and grazed. Long and lean bodies grow and then yellow, stiffening to brittle bones as the weather cools. Crouched between two low boulders, a mountain lion watches from the perimeter. Its gaze, like glass, swallows the outside. Dried grass assembles as fur, and the surrounding rocks lose shape. The scene is opaque, in some ways, impossible to enter, until the touch of the hay. With that scratch, an entrance opens and an itch ensues.
Hay is a reminder of a reality we have lost: a pasture or ground walked over, a scene left grazed and empty. In my thesis work, "Remnants of the Real: Grazed Pasture," I examine the overlap of estranged materials, and their ability to reactivate what disappears into its surroundings. I denaturalize, obscure, and reorient the habitual. The sculptural site fuses with the sculptural object: eyes and whiskers extend the wall, the floor crumbles into weak strands of straw, and the sturdy stone liquifies into an illusion. The common exit sign is given a scratchy, lean body. Rather than one constructing the other, I question how site and object can merge, creating harmony, embracing disguise, and resisting legibility.

Bio

Tom Dailey is a sculptor who loves texture and material. Born and raised in rural Vermont surrounded by chickens, goats, and town-wide yard sales, Tom finds that the materials he uses echo his upbringing. He plays with fur, hay, corn, and paint to build forms that aren’t quite as they seem. In his free time, Tom is an enjoyer of word games, berry picking, and pointing out plants that he remembers eating as a child. He loves the fall, and is looking forward to apple picking season this year.