2009 MFA Artist: Edward Ostrander
Edward Ostrander's Aritist Statement
Emerging from the bowels of landfills, butcher shops and Friedrich Nietzsche, When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible—this descent I call beauty is a meditation on the dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollinian. I’m questioning our ability to collectively affirm life and discover truth in destruction, while thinking about the whole against the individual; institutions above self.
On the butcher. Without one to sever for us, might we starve to see results.
Meat, skeletal muscle and/or the flesh of mammalian tissue blur into amorphous concepts that embody process. Meat is more dead than alive while skeletal muscle is intrinsically part of a living, breathing organism. 3 steaks: chuck, rib and round are landscaped to represent their bodily origin within the steer.
Ice serves as a body, or ephemeral vat for the meat. The clear, wet display case slowly melts, allowing time to confront tragedy. Imminent exposure to oxygen will breed harmful bacteria on the muscle, forcing the protein-rich material into a state of decay. Order is restored when the meat is considered waste—and disposed of.
Sound is active in its inactivity; it operates without the authority of an input source—a self-reliant feedback loop. Heavy, ambient noise throbs, forging the space where meat, ice, steel, amplifiers and cables converge.
Response to Speculation. We must march into darkness, waging war with ourselves, in order to challenge the mountain that looms above us.
*A 300lb. block of ice encasing meat will be replenished every Thursday during the run of the exhibition, with the exception of May 9, when it will be installed exclusively for the reception.
About the Artist
Ed Ostrander was born in Euclid, Ohio. He received his BS in Electronic Media Production from Kent State University in 2004. Ed explores a tension between romance and reality with experiments in sound, action and transience.
[Return to 2009 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition page.]
