I am concerned with understanding the way things actually are; to
determine what is valid and important. The questions that I find most
interesting deal with our place in the natural world and how it has
changed over time with technology, invention and human ingenuity.
I always had difficulty believing what I would witness with my own
eyes as a child. I often would question whether I was really
experiencing my day-to-day life. I struggle to decide at what point
one thing becomes another. I believe my curiosity stems from how
variable the makeup of the things around me are.
At some level I think there is no true separation. I am just as
connected to my arm as I am to the car I drive. I live in an ocean of
energy without true definition between one thing and another.
In my art practice, I compare and contrast how I shape and organize
the natural world around me based on abstract notions and
understanding of what is natural. This often results in a coerced
conforming of the natural elements, often in seemingly unnatural ways.
My work is often about science, technology and the impact they have on
my community and myself. I create video shorts, digitally manipulated
images, 3d computer models and electronic installation sculptures. All
my work has a technology component in the subject matter or in the
construction of the piece.
As we invent technologies and discover more about what makes up the
basic structures around us, we continually redefine what it means to
be an individual and to be a community. Do all these things that we
create in turn shape us in unnatural ways?
Bill Shackelford