Audrey Hagstrom

 

Audrey Hagstrom

"Defense of a Precious Resource"

2021

1/4" steel rod, spray paint, mineral spirits, buckets, wood, chains, dead grass and leaves

74" x 68" x 65"

I have always been drawn to the unique and ambiguous forms nature wields out of itself, so the incorporation of the cut down tree log was always going to be a key component of the piece. However, something new that I wanted to explore was working with found objects, like the buckets. The contrast of these clean uniform buckets against an aged and unique piece of tree log brought up ideas of the environment and its current state. Thoughts of the California wild fires and the deforestation of the Amazon currently wreaking havoc on our trees also came to mind. What resulted from those ideas was the concept of defense mechanism. I imagine a sort of fantasy world in which these wood resources are so depleted that they must actively facilitate for themselves the defense they need, and, with the buckets, also use these other earth materials, which have come to pollute the very place from which they originated, to do so. Thus, the concept behind the aged chains and steel rods flowing out of the log and elevating it, as well as the sharpened rods atop, symbolize this resource’s need to actively defend and preserve itself. The welded spheres placed through the sharp rods atop and which hold dead grass and leaves symbolizes the different biomes of the environment and the ravaging of its habitats and resources.