Wolfgang von sheidy

About Me/ Artist Statement

Statement

My name is Wolfgang Von Sheidy. I work in both sculpture and photography. While sculpture has been my B.F.A. concentration, my love for photography remains equally important. My work develops from different places in each medium, but both are complementary. Whether creating something that has never existed or making something recognizable, the object always plays a role in my process. I experiment with materials such as concrete, resins, photographic prints, and dyes. In the process, I find ways of working where multiple ideas, both good and bad, can develop.
My photography currently deals with the ideas of travel, time passing, archiving, nostalgia, and the banality of everyday scenes and objects. Evidence of my hand is present, especially in my scanned pieces which are inspired by the works of Sonia Sheridan and her use of experimental scanning and alternative photo processes. Urban landscapes and back road landscapes interest me most; they each offer ideas of industrialization and the growth/collapse of a society. I use photos of these photographs, subverting the idea of the picturesque and the traditional expectations associated with the idea of a “landscape”. It’s far more captivating for me to explore how to change a landscape; reacting to it in my own way than to make another example of a landscape based on the traditional model.
My sculpture work deals with nature and ideas about we interact with it and change it. A recent series of rock-like formations made from dyed concrete explore a more science fiction take on rock formations and evoke an “alien pod” feeling due to green and purple colors in the forms. After finding my materials, I am able to sit in the middle of many pieces and fit them together like an abstract puzzle. The result ends in a series or a basis for a piece that I can evaluate and then expand on.