Meghan Gordon

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Expected Graduation 2007) BFA in Painting with a Concentration in Literature. 

"I explore the use of complex interior spaces that depict furniture and objects that my family owns or has owned. I am interested in the bizarre aesthetic of luxurious American interior decoration that approaches a salon or museum ambience. The differentiation of space and the way in which space is observed and utilized are considered within this context. I supplement the psychological effect of the rooms by presenting them in a way that forces the audience to slowly navigate and inspect the particular qualities of the objects that inhabit them. This alludes to the role of the artist as a docent.

My visual and philosophical interests include the representation of nature in these spaces, specifically the intersection of boundaries between an indoor and outdoor space, as well as the idea of luxury manifesting itself as exoticism. I attribute this interest to the reality of the importation of cultural objects from places such as Murano or Bombay as a sign of wealth and intellectualism within the sphere of American luxury. I have been researching Japanese tea ceremonies and the Japanese garden as a result of this interest and contrasting some of the notions of the Japanese aesthetic of beauty with the aesthetic of beauty that I grew up with. This research has informed my work, but has not found its proper placement. I am also interested in the representation of luxury and its relation to the American dream. As a product of these ideals, I want to create a theatrical setting where human actors are not present, as opposed to the romanticized notion of this dream taking the form of a personal narrative. The rooms exist in the present and although they are a record, they are not intended to connote an air of nostalgia. They have been preserved, but were rearranged like a stage set that does not age."