Adam John Manley
“Craft is a process, not a product. It is the way we think about the things we do: a cumulative process of learning by doing, growing, and doing it again from a different perspective. ”
Artist Statement
My work is an exploration of the complex relationship between people, places, and history (both shared and personal), through familiar objects. I create physical and theoretical points of contact with landscapes and environments, exploring how we interact with and interpret both manufactured and natural landscapes. I use furniture and other familiar objects, as a tool for addressing ideas.
As a critical intermediary between people and physical space, furniture and functional objects are an integral part of our shared experience and of my own exploration and practice. The history and collective understanding of their various forms and functions provide me with a wealth of conceptual material as well as a platform for practical problem solving.
My interests lie in the unique experience and sense of history and place that each person has, and how that can be altered and augmented through manipulation of the objects that we associate with our surroundings. I am particularly interested in objects that simultaneously enhance, explore, and obscure our own relationships with place and understanding of our collective histories.
By decontextualizing and dislocating objects from their expected settings, and creating amalgamations of everyday forms and structures, I hope to tap into the associations attached and shift the viewer’s perspective on those objects, their environments, and therefore their own experience with the world and its various systems and relationships.
Co-founder of Craft Desert, a subscription-based hand-made Zine surveying the craft landscape.
