Module 6

Peter Morgan is the featured artist in the Pennsylvania State University Abington’s campus gallery. His show runs through December 8, 2017. Peter has created a series of art based upon food as a metaphor. The entire exhibition consists of low flame ceramic sculptures. “(Almost) Good Enough to Eat” brings together several years of works from Morgan’s ongoing series described as “Food as Landscape.” These pieces include exotic animals (and a tug boat) and yes food. Peter has the animals on top of these intricate foodscapes (seen in the photos). His large-scale ceramic sculptures transform everyday food items into vast majestic landscapes. The irony that’s played out in the series is that the animals used are massive majestic creatures like whales and bears yet the animals are transformed into toy-sized replicas (like a matchbox version of the real thing). Peter achieves this through its macro/micro shift. Peter states that the body of work is “an explanation of the world through an investigation of location, representation, perception, taxonomy, and language.”

I believe that I see an underlying meaning as well. In a few of the pieces I see nature at its finest and our horrid human interaction it. It is not present in all of the pieces but there are two in particular. The piece Peter includes of the birds and the sardines as well as the tug boat pulling the hot dog. Now on the surface they don’t seem to have this contextual meaning but, to me I see the horrid nature of factory farming. In the birds with sardines I see creatures that have been taken from their habitats and placed elsewhere to live and continue on. The tub boat pulling the hot dog also speaks to nature of factory farming because of the extreme numbers of mass production. Chickens are not suppose to be 25lbs.. But they are due to factory farming and GMO’s. I think as an artist these pieces collectively are a great bunch to look at and admire but I want more. In today’s day and age its up to us, the millennials and artists to construct our ever changing world for a better not worse future. The arts are being phased out by the man and need to be put back into play. I would love to see Peter expand on this and do a motivational series to enlighten people on our world. To see the truth is not enough to understand the truth.

 

One thought on “Module 6

  1. I agree with the irony aspect of Morgan’s work and his ability to flip from macro to micro. I think another piece of his work would fit along with the idea of human’s interactions with the environment having an impact on animals. The polar bear and mongoose atop of the glazed doughnut is a prime example of species being forced to compete for resources in unfamiliar habitats due to human encroachment.

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