Abigail St. Clair Thomas interviews artist Wade Schaming and discusses his work, obsessions and fears.
What feeling do you want the audience to have when viewing your work?
I never really think about what someone might feel when viewing my work. I think that would be a hard goal to achieve anyway. I try to make myself feel a certain way all the time to no avail. Often when I read an artist’s statement after viewing their work, the feelings they are trying to convey seldom translate for me. I usually approach an artist’s work by immersing myself into their world–the feelings come later. If I had to pick a feeling for someone to have about my work it would have to be empathy.
Name your top 3 obsessions and why?
1) American politics–it’s so dramatic and tacky, like a reality TV show.
2) swimming–there’s nothing else like it! When I’m in the water and swimming laps, I feel alive.
3) remixed pop songs–they’re always better than the original.
If you could collaborate with a dream artist, who would it be?
Andy Goldsworthy
Can you recall a recent nightmare?
I can recall a reoccurring one:
I’m in a college class (but sometimes the dream takes place in the building where I went to high school) on the day of the final exam and I haven’t gone to the class all semester. It’s usually a math class, which I was never good at, so there’s no way of guessing the answers and I’ll have to fail the course. I’m always baffled at the fact that in the dream I forget to go all semester but manage to show up on the last day!
How does shape play a role in your pieces?
From my drawings to my sculptures, my process is assemblage. Whether it’s mapping out lines on paper or stacking found and collected items, the shape of my work is a product of that process.
How do you choose the object to work with in your pieces?
In my drawings I have been using stamps of logos that I have created that reference my life and generate the look of a fashion or retail brand: my signature, my birth year, my mother and father’s names. The stamps are the objects I draw around.
What is next for you?
In 2014 I will be participating in an artist residency at Vermont Studio Center.
Find out more on Wade’s work here.
Wade’s curated series on Instagram can be seen here.