Macon Reed

My work draws from years of participation in queer, punk and DIY communities where we experiment with how we can, and cannot, consciously shape the world in which we live. Today the brightly-colored, large-scale installations I create are similarly informed by a lineage of artists and thinkers who understand the role art can plan in reshaping our world through radical imagination. I combine studio and social practices, creating temporary worlds to highlight undervalued histories and pressing social issues.

Pairing my consistent palette of bright colors with complex subjects creates a space of dissonance where reconsidering previously accepted perspectives or contradictory emotional landscapes becomes more possible. I love the brief moment when color affects our consciousness before our mind has the chance to assign a story about what that bodily perception means. My sculptures often represent everyday items and spaces, altered with a material sensibility that simultaneously signifies an other-worldliness. I like my sculptures to walk a line between feeling both casually accessible and highly considered.

I often develop my installation ideas through painting. The quick qualities of my line and flat, opaque shapes translate to a graphic quality in three-dimensional space. Similarly, my video pieces translate sculptural environments to a time-based format where I can experiment with world-making through play and performance. Re-working a theme or concept through multiple materials and formats helps me better articulate the larger sculptural spaces I invite people into.

Once activated through performance and public participation, my projects adapt to meet the concerns of each new community they visit. I bring the same level of sensitivity and attention to detail to these exchanges as I do in my studio work. The relationships I build with people are part of the work itself. They require trust-building, open dialog and collaboration. My practice is ultimately about creating spaces and situations to collectively envision solutions to our problems through conversation, play and world-building.