jason tanner young : Writing

Much like a circulatory system, the sprue and runner system is a vital network that conveys hot metal to all parts of a mold. Young's sculptures embrace and accentuate this network of vessels, highlighting the elegant and complex system that helps birth so many of our everyday objects. Mining the region for materials, Young methodically collects and melts copper and aluminum to produce a bronze alloy that as form and process, references a body, its systems and behaviors. Young incorporates these cast bronze pieces into steel and wood compositions, creating new hybridized forms. The wood is often processed and milled from downed storm-damaged trees and branches. While fragments of tools can be identified in his works, the open, twisting forms suggest the fluidity of fish or the movement of water.

With a voice comes a story. Stories morph with each retelling. This relates to sculpture; these objects operate as markers. They tell a loose story, but function more as a description of an environment, an attitude or perception. They mark a certain place in time, a feeling. Objects hold a presence. A reminder of when and where, how and how much, and why is that there?

Because Ty left it there, now help me move it.

The work presented is composed of raw beliefs and curious fixations. These truths open memories and start a stumbling internal dialogue. Stories and lived events surface in the form of objects and installations.

Navarro County: a bread truck shows up at people's houses and takes all their tools and four-wheelers. It doesn’t even leave a screwdriver.

The truck is intriguing, and is a blunt force that plainly does wrong. It operates without a set of directions. Satellites and Google maps aren’t needed here. It is like the storm that blows through doing its damage, and the next day everyone drives around to see what happened.

I remember perfecting the low sweeping motion. Extensive searches were carried out with that white and green metal detector. Those childhood discoveries of artifacts and rusty hinges allowed for a new interpretation of the backyard.

A pair of pliers and a dinosaur are the same thing, except for one being smaller than the other.

Stories such as this fit a need, and give insight about the person telling them, about a time period, people, and their lifestyles. Sculpture is in itself an absurdity, but makes the most sense. Physically and lyrically, it allows experiences to be recalled, our realities to merge, and for the routine and familiar to become new again.

A voice is truly unique and individual. Sculpture functions in this realm. It is an entity that feels alive, and here. The physical can be owned, but the environment, spark, and charisma cannot; it is public domain. The memory of the experience is the true ownership.