Travis Childers

The Dream

Architectural trees, doll house bed

8″ x 4″ x 6″

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Artist Statement

When I begin to create a new piece, I look away from traditional art materials to the things we use and encounter every day. I enjoy the challenge of transforming something commonplace into a new object, keeping in mind the original purpose of the material when giving it new meaning. Although the materials I use are ordinary, I think they can make interesting statements about the world, human nature and the issues affecting all of us. With the new objects, I try to invoke a response by playing with scale and repetition, as well as with feelings of repulsion, intimacy and sometimes preciousness.  

A lot of my work deals with issues that are serious or topics that I’m concerned about. In dealing with these issues, I prefer a subtle or humorous approach. I want my work to serve as a catalyst to the viewer, to see the day-to-day activities in their lives in a different way. That is why, aside from using common everyday materials I also incorporate everyday actions in producing a piece, such as stapling or stamping.  

I’m also very drawn to the absurdity of things I see around me. The crazy commutes we must use to get to where we make money and survival for ourselves. The politics of where we work and the monotonous actions of our jobs. Or how we destroy forested areas to build our homes and then replant trees in our own manicured sense of style. All of these show up in the juxtapositions of things in my work: shirts with clear stick pins to mimic porcupine quills for the office worker seeking protective armor from his coworkers, or landscapes on bricks, with the landscapes turning the tables on a building material that usually alters the landscape. My inspiration does not come from the extraordinary but the everyday and the mundane, and with those I find endless amounts of inspiration. 

www.travischilders.com  
Instagram: @childers.travis