Geoffrey Krist
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My work has always reflected upon the behavior of humanity. I am interested in socially constructed beliefs, such as religious faith and political loyalty. Of particular interest are habits and gestures guided subconsciously, emotionally, and physically that reinforce and degrade these beliefs. I address religion's growth and decay by using plants and vegetation to stand in for theology and faith. Gardens and beliefs both need frequent tending. Some will die, some will flourish, some will go out of style, and some will turn out to be downright dangerous. As with plants, a belief takes time to grow and take root and only do so in proper conditions. Through the use of concrete, I also reference the urban and industrial, and human-made. Using concrete structures as vessels for growth, I combine the vibrance of belief and growth with man's tools to arrest the natural world like concrete and steel, both influencing and regulated by the natural world's changes.
In this current set of pieces, I create a narrative of a dystopia religious sect that is always on this nomadic journey through the wilderness with these relics of a misunderstood faith. Addressing the ideas of blind faith and question the journey of life and how it all occurs. Using the vitrine for the wheatgrass vestment, I call ideas of religion and nature and our blind belief over the control over nature and the absurdity of carrying such an awkward object. With the tree in the cracked rock, its environment manipulates it, but it has no control over the ground, much like a newborn child. I want to reference the reverence we have for objects of faith and question the belief itself through the item. In the third and final piece, I saw the form in a dream and wanted to bring to reality a dream object. I wanted to create a structure that both referenced faith but wasn't of any recognizable faith—an altar to an unknown divinity.
Rinehart School of Sculpture (MFA) Students