Clay Swatzell
Clay Swatzell is an artist who mainly works with photography. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations. Swatzell often creates work using creative game tactics, but these are never permissive. Play is a serious matter: during the game, different rules apply than in everyday life and even everyday objects undergo transubstantiation.
His photos never show the complete structure. This results in the fact that the artist can easily imagine his own interpretation without being hindered by the historical reality. By taking daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of middle-class values, he tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical, and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.
His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. With a conceptual approach, he tries to increase the dynamic between audience and author by objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations.
His works are characterized by using everyday objects in an atmosphere of middle-class mentality in which recognition plays an important role. Clay Swatzell currently lives and works in Overland Park KS.