Collecting Components

A grotesque purple hand reaches out into a sunlit meadow; the clawed webbed fingers delicately grasp a yellow flower expertly snapping the stem. The hand is graceful, its movements precise and calculated, it withdraws, having found what it sought, disappearing from the serene field without a trace. Each piece in the Collecting Components series offers a glimpse into the world of this nameless creature. The creature moves about freely gathering components from small enclosed environments that are lush but lack diversity, instead they overflow with an abundance of the one thing that the figure seeks. This figure, shrouded in mystery, is an other. They are different from us. Their purple skin, elongated sometimes webbed fingers, and long sharp nails are jarring and unsettling alongside a natural vibrant world which we are familiar with. We jump to conclusions that this figure is up to no good, stalking about in search of something for a dark and devious purpose. The fact that the figure and their motives are unknown leaves us with questions, because we do not understand the figure we fear them. This fear of the unknown happens over and over in our own world. It is my hope that we, as a society will learn to accept this unknown with no desire to change it even if we never get the answers we seek. This series of collage works is made using a variety of media that I find in the trash mixed with some traditional mediums to fill in or define space. During the summer I go on trash walks with a friend and collaborator. On these walks we pick through the garbage of Riverwest, a neighborhood in Milwaukee. We find many discarded useful things. Many of these forgotten objects find their way into my art: packaging, fabric, nail polish, cans of paint, glitter, faux plants, dental floss, scratch offs, fishing line, jewelry, scraps of paper. Using this diverse array of stuff as my medium offers many challenges and problems. It often slows my process making each piece a new and unique challenge to overcome. It also gives me a chance to find another purpose for what was no longer needed. Sometimes these objects are used in the depiction of things they are not. This allows them to have a sort of duality within the work, existing as they were and for the purpose of the image. In a way the series itself depicts this process. Just as the figure in the work interacts with the natural environment to find the things it needs in order to create something so do I go out into my urban environment gathering the things I need to make the work.

 Kiefer Ledell Waterman is an artist living and working in Milwaukee, WI. Kiefer graduated from the UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts in 2012. Since then Kiefer has been included in shows in the Milwaukee area at The Nut Factory, Walker's point Center for the Arts, Charles Alice Art Museum, and the Charles A Wustum Museum as well as a solo show in 2018 at the UW-Sheboygan Art Gallery. Kiefer’s art has also been shown in online exhibitions with Flat Rate Contemporary and GIFC. Kiefer’s current work focuses on and is influenced by world building, Ursula K. Le Guin and the magic of Earthsea, Dungeons & Dragons, witchcraft and culture, gender and sexuality studies, trash, Graham Harman and Object Oriented Ontology, and the social societies of ants as well as artists such as Oda Iselin Sonderland, Maren Karlson and others who build up worlds and mythologies in their own work.