NH2

Noah: Preserves is an ongoing stone carving project. Consisting of A series of life-sized limestone carvings of various Mason jars. This ranges from pickle jars, to jam jars, to Classicos sauce jars. The work started out as this vague need to be physically productive; to make an object in a studio space using formal tools and that's sort of thing. But it's in times since evolved into so many other small inclinations in my mind ranging from environmental issues, to use of resources as stone carving, a very wasteful process. As well as recycling and reusing culture and food culture. As well homesteading and home crafts. The work has also become about the parallels between handcraft and industrial reproduction. There's also, in my mind, a link between a settler colonialism and resource use in connection to manipulation of material. But at its core, it's very much about having to make a series of stone jars and placing them in a room.

Sunny: Awesome. Do you want to talk about how your project relates to the theme of weight or weight as the two definitions apply?

Noah: The reason I started this project had nothing to do with the actual themes. This idea started with the need to be productive. Trying to parse out how long it would take to make one object and how much time I should spend on one object and the need to be physically working. I'm somebody who has a hard time feeling like I did anything unless I am physically tired at the end of the day. Which is why I approached stone carving. It's something that'll leave you exhausted and occasionally bruised.
There's a play between implied and actual weight when it comes to a material like stone. When it's carved into something like a Mason jar or anything life size, there's an illusion that it could be a lot lighter than it is. When it's solid rock they probably weigh 10 pounds each.

Sunny: Is this a piece that connects with what you are usually doing in your practice? Or do you feel like it was a bit of a divergence from what you usually do?

Noah: I've worked with stone a couple of times. It's something that I've taken up as my medium of choice, at least while I have access to a stone carving studio here at school. In terms of subject matter, working with Lifesize, typically household objects, is something that I find really powerful when put in the context of art objects. In the past, I've made things like a beer bottle out of cast bronze. I focus on making These life sized objects in typically art historically important materials. Bronze and stone are the most significant sculptural materials. At least in a Western sense. I find this history something really fascinating to tackle with. But also, What's more useless object to cast in bronze than a beer bottle?

Sunny: And it's this postmodern approach too, which is really great.

Noah: Yeah. I find it a lot of postmodern, in particular post-minimalist , there's a lot of work that is really fascinating where there's clear subject matter, but in many ways, the subject matter is a facade. It's there because they had to have it, but it can be about so much more than what's depicted.

Sunny: Right.

Noah: Relating work to a spatial narrative. This particular piece was displayed in the presentation area on the second floor of the port campus. My work, in almost a curatorial sense, is related to -- there's this great Series of definitions for installation and site specificity by Robert Irwin. Where he establishes a series of outlines for: what is site-specific versus what is site responsive, what is site adjusted. Defining these terms in a way that I've taken too. In particular, this work is related to what Erwin describes as site adjusted work, which is essentially " the physical work itself is produced somewhere else and can move between sites. However it changes its arrangement and adapts its meaning from the location that it's placed in''. The work in many senses is about reflecting its environment more so than bringing attention to itself. Which is what I'm hoping this work does. Though it's hard to translate to a virtual art show.

Sunny: Yeah. You talked about the way that the Mason jars were responding to like the cold port campus in a way of sort of clustering and sort of huddling up. How do you see this piece expanding on in further elaborations or further settings?

Noah: I think it for me will entirely depend on the space. So one big thing, that's very typical of art galleries or art- based locations, this is a coldness. Port Campus is reflective of the white cube approach to displaying art, where it's white walls, concrete floor, bright lighting, that sort of thing. In that instance, that's a very hard environment to live in. Counter to that, is a diverse environment; lots of nooks and crannies or a more homely approach to something. In my mind, the work would be a lot more exploratory of that space. Instead of having to stay together for protection - for lack of a better term. It could instead highlight a room. In a warm living room you could put one on the mantle, one on the one at the corner by the door. Spread them out in that sort of sense. They wouldn't need to be together to work with the space.

Sunny: That's cool. They Represent a very immediate response to whatever the environment. From what you're describing, that's such a quality, especially with something like Mason jars as an object.

Noah: They're Such a disposable thing that they blend into mostly a kitchen environment or a domestic environment, but they sort of just blend into a space. It's a multifaceted object in that people use them for whatever they're needed for it's generally for storing something. People use it for drinking glasses, or they're used for garbage, or there for preservation

Sunny: Is there any general thing or message that you want viewers to take away from your work?

Noah: In the context of this show, I want people to think about how objects fit virtual spaces. I've definitely been struggling with the shift to online. Online exhibitions and art are very, very suffocating for sculptural work because you can't actually experience the object in the room. There's no relation to your body in that sense. But there's something that I think could be there. I hope that people can take something away from the work when they see it.