Aaron Sheldon

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

apart from the wood there were people

I see in the built environment the contest of successive generations, sometimes quiet and incremental, sometimes violent. Materials and built forms bear the marks of the past, layered with personal and communal aspirations and disappointments. Remaking and decay add new layers, but earlier narratives persist in re-used forms and plastered-over timbers. The institutions within mirror this dynamic: both buildings and institutions resist change, held in place by embedded narratives.

I would like to reimagine those narratives. Nomusa Makhubu argues that "the enduring histories embodied in buildings, names and institutional traditions are experienced as monumental violation and as insult and humiliation. The ‘rot’ and ‘decay’ may not be manifest on actual edifices, but it consumes certain bodies, ferments race and gender social relations, and decays the sense of belonging.” She centres art in the critical examination of the built environment and, by extension, the alternative futures it could hold.

The unknown complicates this critical examination, obscuring commonalities behind uncertainty. But rather than decaying into prejudice, uncertainty could as well be an opportunity for engagement. Nnamdi Elleh proposes a “conceptual vocabulary for conveying unknowns,” new artistic and architectural languages suited to our time. At best, these languages will hold complexity and ambiguity, communicating the unknown across differences.

My sculpture looks for points of reference and empathy in reimagined building materials and built forms. I hope to recognise and engage the conflicting narratives contained in domestic and public structures. My materials come primarily from Cape Town salvage yards, and the city has been an inspiration. As a result, the forms and materials I manipulate have their own contested legacies as products of colonial and apartheid regimes.

My work also reflects my background. I am an American but have lived and worked outside the United States for much of my career. I have been part of the institutions of government: as a legislative aid in the U.S. Senate and later supporting peace-building in Liberia, Uganda, Somalia, and Pakistan. I have also worked as a carpenter’s labourer and furniture maker. I apply all of my experiences to my sculpture.