Meredith Sands
Bio: Meredith Sands, born April 16, 1987 at 7AM. On the dot. It was the last time she ever woke up early. She’s a lover of oceans and floccinaucinihilipilification who grew up in Malibu, California. She arrived in NYC via Baltimore (Maryland Institute College of Art), Chicago (School of the Art Institute of Chicago). Her work explores themes related to the human body, obscenity, disgust, innocence, violence, games, toys and absurd humor.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: Do you hear squishing, slapping and snickering? Do you sense ambiguity and conflicting perspectives? Do you see an ‘offering,’ as opposed to ‘grabbing’
or ‘taking?’ Is there a tension that exists between these opposites?
My motifs are inspired by games; bouncing objects; and imagery, such as hats and gloves; metaphors, including berries and buds.
These expressions have been visu- alized with the playfulness and color seen in cartoons — those that explode in paradoxical violence (inspired by a pining Krazy Kat, a mischievous Bugs Bunny, or a masochistic Jerry in Tom and Jerry).
The work is undertaken against a backdrop of rebirth, eternal return, and cycles of change, through depicting shadows, holes, and voids.
My impetus has been the deciphering of adult intent in our formative years— the invisible hand of ‘grown-ups’ in a child’s life—inside jokes in Pixar movies, mass-produced toys, carnival games, and potty-mouth. My objective has been to expand the innuendo in innocent objects like Smurf hats and Play-Doh, contrasted with rendered objects like dog penises and sagging balls.
The words that summarize this practice are pinch, playtime, and snatch.
L to R: Into It (72˝× 72˝, Oil on canvas, 2016); Tip (72˝× 72˝, Oil on canvas, 2016)