Meaghan Carpenter is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice
combines aspects of sculptural installation, performance, collage and drawing to
create works that comment on our culture of desire, excess and emotional vacancy. Carpenter draws from personally gathered and accumulated
collections specific to our economy of want, such as, non-winning lottery
tickets, credit card offers, discarded liquor bottles and consumer product waste.
Working from these collections she arranges and rearranges, layers and stacks
until the pieces transform into their own being(s) complete with a lexicon of signs
and symbols derived directly from the found objects. The resulting pieces hint
at ritual, are mysteriously familiar but a tad offbeat, and explore notions of the
environment, pollution, complacency, gluttony, human connection and loss. By carefully
placing and displaying the work she invites the viewers to become seduced in
the act of looking and asks the viewer to reexamine their relationship to the immediate
world around them and the resonating impact of the choices they make in their
daily lives.
In Carpenter’s public performance, TRUST (2008-ongoing), she
has created a safe environment within the public context of a gallery setting
that allows the artist and one participant a unique experience. By providing a
free manicure in exchange for conversation, she breaks down the barrier of
personal space and comfort by becoming quickly intimate (holding hands) and
emotionally (shared thoughts) invested with a stranger. Asking the question,
“What does it mean to Trust?” and affirming the desire we all share for human
connection among a society dominated by social media.