STAYING PUT
Adam John Manley
In the Gallery
Staying Put, an exhibition by Adam John Manley, is a continuation of a series of works that exist as objects as well as outdoor installations. It is a floating sculpture that is completed when it has lived, for a short time, in the waters of Maine. Inspired by docks, floats, buoys, and nautical markers, the work places a four piece dining set on an articulating float and documents its installation and interaction with its environment. The work is exhibited as an amalgamation of objects, images, video, and interactive experience. The engagement between the object and its environs encourages a consideration of place through these familiar icons of human engagement and interaction.
Trained in Furniture making and construction techniques, Adam Manley creates a range of works, from large-scale sculptural objects and installations, to furniture and functional objects. Currently, his work addresses Landscape, environment, space and place through constructed forms that engage the viewer not only with the work itself, but also with the immediate surroundings. This work promotes an evaluation of the relationship to and engagement with place, while exploring the personal sense of place that we all harbor. Utilizing the language of familiar utilitarian objects, iconic architectural structures, and infrastructural systems, Adam investigates the personal relationship with the everyday spaces that we inhabit and re-imagines it by altering and transplanting familiar forms. His recent body of work explores landscape, place, and history through juxtaposition of elements into confounding narratives.
Adam Currently teaches at UMass Dartmouth’s Program in Artisanry and splits his time between New Bedford Massachusetts and Portland Maine.
Read some reviews of Adam’s show written by students at The Telling Room here.
