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ARTIST STATEMENT

“Something has survived,” reads the tagline for the 1997 movie Jurassic Park: The Lost World. Undeniably, something has survived: my infatuation with the pop culture of my formative years during the late nineteen eighties and nineties. As I age, I continue to view and interpret the world through these cultural glasses, and it’s become the focus and purpose of my work. My predilection for making collectible objects comes from my training as a potter and my preoccupation with collecting toys, pop memorabilia, and nostalgic items from my youth—items that were often cheaply made and disposable, but are, for me, enduring and precious. Clay and glaze have proven essential materials for honoring them.

The mold-making and sculpting process allows me to cast authentic replicas of these meaningful objects. Glaze and paint emphasize the magnificence of the material as it flows in and out of lines and wrinkles, giving the object’s surface a wealth of depth and variation within a simplified color scheme. Gold luster is employed sparingly to highlight specific areas of intimate interactions we have with the objects.

I find that the mold-making process imitates, in a certain way, the fossilization process. Objects are covered in a material that captures their shape and texture and this, in turn, preserves the object as a rock-like representation. Movies, television, toys and games dominated the cultural landscape of my youth. I am a product of this specific time period, and I like to think of my artwork as the fossils that will help preserve it.

— Brett Kern

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Brett Kern has a BFA from California University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from West Virginia University. He has been a long-term resident at RedLodge Clay Center in Montana, and taught ceramics for several years at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia. He now worksas a full-time studio artist in Pittsburgh, PA.