Today I decided to catch up with the recent and “seriously silly” creations of California based artist Nemo Gould. Gould has been creating his odd creatures, robots, and kinetic sculptures from old vacuum cleaners, kitchen pots, gasoline pumps, and whatever else he can get his hands on, for more than 20 years. His work has been featured frequently in national media and is shown in Galleries and Museums throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Of his work, Gould says, “What makes a thing fascinating is to not completely know it. It is this gap in our understanding that the imagination uses as its canvass. Salvaged material is an ideal medium to make use of this principle. A “found object” is just a familiar thing seen as though for the first time. By maintaining this unbiased view of the objects I collect, I am able to create forms and figures that fascinate and surprise. These sculptures are both familiar and new. Incorporating consumer detritus with my own symbology, they are the synthesis of our manufactured landscape and our tentative place within it– strong and frail at the same time.”
Nemo is currently exhibiting at SF20 in San Francisco (September 16 – 19, 2010) and at the Visions of Paradise Exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum in Sonoma, California (August. 21 – November 7, 2010).
To see more of Nemo Gould’s work and to watch video of his sculptures in action, visit Nemomatic.com.
