Taylor Baldwin’s exquisitely rendered, stylized figurations emerge from aggregation, both physical and conceptual. Each found-object sculpture weaves together multiple stories—of time and events, people and places, and particular material histories. He describes his work as involving systems and structures that unveil a mutable framework allowing for a range of individual interpretations. We may respond first to the objects themselves—the human form, the material care, the tension between singular sculpture and its constituent parts—but then the embedded stories begin to take over, reshaping our understanding. Baldwin’s keen sensitivity to the symbolic possibilities of accumulation and synthesis results in materially lush, almost forensic works created with a mind-boggling blend of artistry, anthropology, and anatomy.
Joshua Reiman: Why do you work almost exclusively with found materials?
Taylor Baldwin: The initial decision came as a response to my graduate thesis experience, 20 years ago. We were pushed to make the most ambitious, materially significant work that we’d ever made, to pull out every stop. So, I did. It was a monumental work, and I went into debt to do it. It was up for a week; then it went into storage, and after paying for two years, I had to throw it away. It was deflating and hard to justify the materials expended—the trees logged, the petroleum refined, the steel smelted, the long supply chain—all for a work that was heading to the landfill. . .
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