Dana Filibert

Artist Statement

I find it captivating to bear witness as the mass-produced persists to become more deeply integrated in daily life. Product design and marketing encourage the consumer to embrace the object as indicator of his individuality. He is permitted to fulfill any fantasy of himself through ownership.

Time I spent in the Detroit area surrounded by the intense car-culture made a significant impression on how I look at consumer products. Trips to the annual auto show became an anthropological study to observe hoards of men ogling shiny engines and slick auto bodies, while provocatively clad sales girls went ignored. I found the most compelling feature of these machines to be their ability to absorb attention and fuel fantasy.

Instilling a corporeal preciousness in objects prevails as an unconscious human need to shape ones identity. Consumer products provide assistance, with designs that integrate human characteristics of biomorphic form and cuteness to facilitate a simulated emotional bond fueling the desire for possession.

I create sculpture that is a reaction to consumer culture. I construct objects that simultaneously exude a sense of preciousness and unease. In my Cloud Form Series I utilize iconic animal forms that maintain a hold on popular culture commodities as fetishized consumer objects. Other works employ discarded mass-produced objects that lend themselves to modification through the use of additional found objects, epoxy, steel, carved foam, and or fabricated steel components. The manifestation of my work is a synthesis of childhood imagery, human biology and the mass-produced consumer object.