SARAH MCNUTT
BENJAMIN ARTIST

2015​

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My work addresses topics in human psychology, specifically how we interpret body gesture, and speculate on the motivations behind such signaling through figurative sculpture and digital media.  Sublimation and The Lottery unifies light and matter to illustrate our basic needs and values that are the basis of behavior. 

 

These basics of human experience construct themselves into a hierarchy of physiological necessities and societal interactions in order to attain equilibrium. Looking to theories behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, these pieces reflect on the need behind the behavior. The clay figures are representative of five of many universal desires that relate directly to the human body: collection, consumption, control, coitus, and comfort. While the hanging video embodies the desire for human connection with each other and the larger community.

 

My work discusses both our simple and not so simple desires: the strong yearnings that motivate our behavior and exert pressure to perform certain actions.  We often examine mannerisms without looking deeper into the longing or deficit behind it. This work is an acknowledgement of the complexity of unspoken needs and motivations.