Peter Dellert:
Tools = Work & Work Related

Tools = Work | Sculpture Garden Exhibition: September 7, 2021 - May 14, 2022
Work Related | Incubator Space Exhibition: September 7, 2021 - December 1, 2021

Artist Reception: Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. ET
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. ET

 

Two enlarged vintage kitchen tool sculptures will be placed in the Hampden gallery outdoor sculpture garden. These pieces reflect on the past and present production and use of hand tools, and tool users at home and at work in both the past and the present contemporary culture.

Artist Statement:
Core is an enlarged version of a vintage apple corer and peeler. Together with Blend, an enlarged version of a vintage pastry blender, they are presented as tools of a bygone era, now infused with new meaning by being made into human scaled sculptures placed in the environment. What had been domestic and harmless now seems ominous and perhaps threatening. What was manageable and fit in the hand is now overgrown and other worldly. Pop iterations of enlarged tools and objects were made by such greats as Claes Oldenberg in the 60’s and 70’s. And in the more recent past I have repurposed cast off elements of our industrial culture and remade them into my interpretations of what might evolve after our civilization is no more. Core, and Blend, are just what they are, or what they were, and even if one is not familiar with the use of such a thing in the past, one is now challenged to decide what is the use, purpose and meaning of these sculptures now. Perhaps they too have emerged from the detritus of a post apocalyptic world to set to work to remake what is gone. Or perhaps they are mere reminders of a simpler time when hand work was ritualized and appreciated.

 

Bio:
Peter Dellert is a furniture maker, sculptor and collage artist living and working in Holyoke, MA. Inspired by nature, biomorphic forms, and most recently vintage hand tools, his sculptures utilize such diverse materials as tin cans, tree branches, grape vines, steel, copper, aluminum, carved Spanish cedar, concrete, and found recycled automotive catalytic converter covers. His sculptures have been exhibited in Sculpture Key West (FL), Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood (MA), Sculpture New Hope (PA), and Sculpture Now at the Mount (MA) as well as galleries and museums in the U.S. and Japan. One of his most recent pieces, Truth #1 (lime version) was chosen for inclusion in the Burlington MA Sculpture Park. His recent New Paradigm Tool Company pieces which incorporate found / recycled tools were part of a solo show at Anchor House of Artists in the summer of 2020.

He has taught at Arrowmont, Haystack, Snow Farm, and North Country Studio Workshops. In 2015 his work was exhibited in Art in the Park (Worcester, MA), Art in Nature (Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA) ,Sculpture Now at the Mount (Lenox, MA) and Art in the Orchard (Easthampton, MA). In 2016 Bound Egg was shown at The Mount, Hope was installed in New Hope, PA, and Sine Chime was installed at the Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, CT. In 2017 a new sculpture Obsolete Oil Can Fountain debuted at Art in the Orchard, Easthampton MA. In 2019 three enlarged vintage kitchen tools, Chop, Core and Blend, were exhibited at Sculpture Now at the Mount. In 2020, Truth #1 (lime version) was chosen for the inaugural exhibition at Burlington, MA sculpture park. His sculptures and collages have been shown in numerous one-man exhibitions and included in many publications, most recently in Creating Abstract Art (Northlight Books, 2014).


For a full portfolio see www.peterdellert.com