Artist Statement

I endeavor to realize work that first engages and then provokes thoughts. Why has this thing come into existence? Why here, and why now? Sculpture as cultural object is thought manifested in form and is meant to be experienced by a conscious being within a cultural construct.

I am interested in art that provokes reflection of who we are as individual subjective conscious beings in a social, cultural place, in a present, unfolding locale; I want to realize art that allows for one’s intimate grounded place and at the same time allowing to remember and to be aware of the global present. Art is a voice in the world, not an utterance, but a constructed thought.

In my work I often use natural objects and cultural artifacts as sources. Resized and changed in scale they become metaphors that relate to our life experience.

They allow for an engaged encounter that will give one the sense of being grounded in one’s own body, a sense of being in the right place and in the present moment, the presence of time. It plays with the senses and the sensation of scale as an experience, and with their specific metaphorical context as a critical thought-provoking encounter.

I am interested in placing art in the public domain that can be engaged with on many levels, from the naïve to the highly informed, a wide spectrum of context.

Critical for me is the realization of public art works that fit well in the ongoing concerns of my art practice. Art in the public domain must engage us in a meaningful experience. It is through a meaningful experience that we change our life and that makes us engage in life thoughtfully and embrace its larger meaning.

John Greer
Dallas, TX, October 2004

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Last Update: March 2005