Bill Vielehr

My work is not conceived to be attractive and visually pleasing, but many times achieves this non-purpose through process — process that pays homage to all visual art created through process. From Christo’s installations to printmakers, my work is handmade and, in the sense of artists like Tom Sachs, non-propagandistic. The reason it is considered reconstructed visual art by me is that it exists for itself because of itself. Craftsmanship is a non-issue. The works just physically stand on their own; nothing in the process — wax work, mold work, fitting, welding, sanding, polishing, coloring, etc. is hidden. It does not require a social or political environment, yet by polishing surfaces it reflects and interacts with the physical environment. The introduction of the figure as silhouettes and out-of-context outlines is a direct attempt to humanize the visual art concepts; they are abstracted by process; they are not the image of realism, or social-political culture. The works don't say now,they don't melt like ice, and they need no documentation that dilutes from the creative process. They are permanent (unless physically attacked) 3D visual art statements — attempts at communication in the purest form, that is, that the attempt to communicate is the justification as well as the message. My work is a view of where I am now, and a window to the direction I am experimenting towards. I consider no particular piece better than another. On some, I progress a little further in trying to figure out what I am doing — I step forward and backward and get lost. At certain times I am not sure what I am doing. Those are the best.