Peter Barbor

I embrace impermanence. Through the application of plastic materials--clay, plaster, paper pulp, wax--I sculpt bodies suspended in a state of becoming or decomposition. The tenuous lifespans of my sculptures point to the mortality of the histories and mythologies that support them. Slaked, slathered, stuck together, I rely on both physical and conceptual armatures. I question what happens when established hierarchies are placed in reverse. A scarecrow may become a man of sorrows. What is felt often translates to what is believed. Drawing from disparate time periods, as a scavenger, unremarkable archaeologist, and low-brow alchemist, I approach my work with equal parts irreverence and a sort of fervent faith. Through the remixing of disparate narratives, I aim to assert that the present is composed of plural histories. The transformation and performance of my materials may ask for a suspension of disbelief. These bodies are either just mud and sticks or the real thing.
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