my artist statement

Invading Conceptual Spaces

      I’m especially interested in investigating the ways in which we as humans use symbols to negotiate and conceptually construct reality. While the symbols we commonly do the most definitional work on come in the form of words, I’ve chosen to employ the symbolic powers of imagery for my viewer to work with. In essence, my work is an interrogation of social symbolic interaction and social constructionism – our mutual building of reality as we know it.

      For these reasons, I have found the use of collage – of appropriating preexisting and familiar types of media imagery especially from popular magazines – to construct spaces that are meant to fail the viewer’s expectations about representation, reality, and Truth. Collage serves as a very literal construction analogous to the conceptual construction of “reality” we each partake of. I attempt to weave a space that the viewer may inhabit in the hope that some part of the constructed image resonates with them, provoking contemplation, chaos, calm, confusion, and countless other sensations.

                       -Alex Korb