Artist Talk: Ben Hunt

Most art students at Sacramento State have probably been introduced to Ben Hunt; he's our technician, he gives us our studio safety talks, and can be found around the art-sculpture lab to answer questions and hear out concerns for our quirky building that holds most of the art classes. However, not every student is probably familiar with his art- and I realized on March 15th, when he gave his talk at our university, that this is very unfortunate.  His talk showed the progression of his work and all of the ideas, influences, and journeys that have gone into his installations and sculptures.

Ben began his talk by discussing the painting "Triumph Over Mastery" by Mark Tansey, and how he took the content- Michael Angelo's Last Judgement being painted over in white- to be about the importance of art history. A fascination with history continued to be a theme throughout the art he showed. One of his earliest works was an installation that dealt with memory- personal photographs stitched together, the recitation of memories, a central autopsy table, and the sound of drops in a bucket came together to create something that spoke to fading memories over time.

He showed us some of his other early works, totemic sculptures that explored negative space and geometric patterns as well as the material of steel and bronze. He suggested these weren't necessarily strong works, but that they were important learning experiences. I appreciated that he included them anyway, because every artist has works we look back on in embarrassment.

At one point he traveled to Galway, Ireland and saw the rusting remnants of a nautical culture- old anchors, buoys, and shipwrecks with their pieces reincorporated into the daily life of the town. This inspired him to create  abstract sculptural works that evoked a similar feeling to the juxtapositions he witnessed of those objects, and the idea of the weathered or used object and its connection to the memories of the past continued in other works using furniture and photographs.

Another thing that was a theme throughout his work was the material itself. Working as an assistant to fellow artist David Middlebrook, he learned a wide variety of ways to work with materials. He started to take interest in the juxtaposition of organic and inorganic material. He also mentioned having a discussion with a peer about the concerns of creating objects in a world that's already so full of objects, as well as wanting to find more efficient and cost-effective materials. Eventually he started scavenging for used materials, going around to construction sites. A donation of unused plexiglass became a mainstay, and he also introduced acrylic  because of the saturation of plastic in today's life.

Some of his more recent works, and the ones I personally enjoyed learning about the most, dwelled on the mystery of what happens in the time between two photographs taken moments apart. He would use old family photos and have them printed transparently, then overlay them. The results were hazy, like a memory, but blurred as if in action. They were framed and set up with other furniture, both made of ghostly white acrylic.

At the end of his lecture, Ben had given a look at the progress of his work, skills, the different ideas that influenced him, and the images that haunted him. It all culminated in a body of work that was visually minimal, yet deeply layered in thought. I enjoyed hearing about the experiences that impacted his art, whether it was something technical like the skills he gained as an assistant or something more esoteric, like the strange feeling of looking upon a shipwreck.