Hell and High Water

source: mikecalway-fagen

I’m continually drawn back to the land, people, and place that has been a focal point for so much of my adult life. Tennessee has left an indelible mark on me: a stalwart commitment to the traumatic and defining past , a susceptibility to myth, an unabashed desire for romance all deeply entrenched in my sense of self. My conceptual interests deal with some big ideas, eeking out space to understand questions like human worth and insignificance, existence as animals, faith, time, death, love, and in large part tie together many of these far flung epicentric points. We are in jeopardy of losing our collective imagination, any meaningful contact with the relevance of daydreaming, and becoming exceedingly more grounded. I make things for people to slow down, look, listen, think, and feel.
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source: ucsdopenstudios

An artist removed from his native Tennessee pursuing an MFA at the University of California, San Diego, Mike Calway-Fagen illuminates the systematic unraveling of humankind. The failure of humans comes much in the same way one’s life passes; once you’re born you begin to die. Natural phenomena have been labeled incorrectly as “natural disasters”, the semantic difference demonizes and is used to prop up humanity by placing it under attack. Maybe we are under attack. Maybe the animals and the gods and the hurricanes and the earthquakes are mad and are on the offense. The story of failure is one that will be revised for all time.