Kenneth Hall
www.kennethhallart.com
Assistant Professor
University of Northern Iowa
www.kennethhallart.com
Assistant Professor
University of Northern Iowa
Artist Statement:
My recent work involves splicing and
combining very disparate forms into new -
hybrid - structures. I was given a chemistry
set when I was nine years old, and learned
how to make chlorine gas and turpentine
after sneaking a peak at my dad’s college
chemistry books. I find myself invoking this
same sort of naïve experimentation in my
drawings and paintings.
As I collage visual fragments, certain forms
become surrogates; characters in a
hermetically-sealed environment that are
subjected to a variety of forces. These
surrogates are pierced, fragmented, inflated,
spun, shaken, morphed, and spliced
together as I move them through this visual
container. Source imagery comes from a
multitude of places; children’s science
books, sketchbook doodles, close-up
photos, and objects like toy dinosaurs,
flowers, or cicada shells. Eventually these
objects begin to carry complicated
meanings, alluding to the body, landscape,
or nano/mega architecture.
Painting can be like giving “flesh” to motion,
emotion, or force. What does rage or lust
look like when given a visual equivalent?
When the hurricane-ravaged remains of a
building are set against glowing underwater
life forms, for instance, then a hybrid form
emerges and this baffling thing evokes an
empathetic response in the viewer.
My recent work involves splicing and
combining very disparate forms into new -
hybrid - structures. I was given a chemistry
set when I was nine years old, and learned
how to make chlorine gas and turpentine
after sneaking a peak at my dad’s college
chemistry books. I find myself invoking this
same sort of naïve experimentation in my
drawings and paintings.
As I collage visual fragments, certain forms
become surrogates; characters in a
hermetically-sealed environment that are
subjected to a variety of forces. These
surrogates are pierced, fragmented, inflated,
spun, shaken, morphed, and spliced
together as I move them through this visual
container. Source imagery comes from a
multitude of places; children’s science
books, sketchbook doodles, close-up
photos, and objects like toy dinosaurs,
flowers, or cicada shells. Eventually these
objects begin to carry complicated
meanings, alluding to the body, landscape,
or nano/mega architecture.
Painting can be like giving “flesh” to motion,
emotion, or force. What does rage or lust
look like when given a visual equivalent?
When the hurricane-ravaged remains of a
building are set against glowing underwater
life forms, for instance, then a hybrid form
emerges and this baffling thing evokes an
empathetic response in the viewer.
| "In Extremis", 32" x 36", oil and shellac on panel, 2010 |
| "Mystery of the G-Spot", oil on canvas, 2009 |
| "Detached Libido", 66" x 48", oil on canvas, 2009 |
| "Rapture", 66" x 48", oil on canvas, 2007 |
| "Shock and Awe", 72" x 96" (diptych), oil and shellac on panel, 2007 |
| "Fight or Flight Mechanism", approx. 24" x 24" (shaped), oil on panel, 2010 |
