Leandra Brandson
October 14, 2021Reasons to Have Your Wedding In the Spring (or Fall, or Winter)
October 26, 2021My name is Al, and I am a multidisciplinary designer and artist operating at the intersection of craft, architecture, landscape, and computation. I am originally from Des Moines, Iowa, but was raised in the mountains and badlands of Alberta. My interest in making started from an early age, where I grew up woodworking with my dad. This interest became more focused when I chose to take up architecture as a discipline – leading me away from the beautiful skies of Alberta to the pastel coastlines of Nova Scotia. During my studies at Dalhousie and through partnerships with NSCAD, I discovered a deep interest in clay as a working medium.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I believe that matter and its forces fundamentally engage and transform life. Wind weathers rock, water carries particulate, and edges allow for the accumulation of the clay we use to form our artefacts and architecture. As such, I tend to focus on working ‘with’ the matter and forces at hand so that the potential for emergence, chaos, and spontaneity can be leveraged in meaningful ways. As of late, I have been working with machines, in dialogue with material landscapes, to see how agency, subjectivity, animacy, and materials can be coalesced into emergent forms.
October 2021 – March 2022