Constituent

2014 - Installation (Installation)

Cameron Rowland

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Rowland’s minimal installations require a focus not on the objects themselves, but on the conditions of their creation, use, and distribution. Who controls the services that contemporary citizens take for granted—like power, water, heat? Who makes these objects that deliver these services? How are they paid? In essence—who holds the power? In Constituent , this question is made somewhat more literal: a dangling electrical plate hangs limply from the wall, the copper wires jutting from the wall cut to reveal their core. The commonplace object that we recognize as a source of power here is rendered inept—literally powerless—while the mechanisms typically tucked away from sight continue to carry current.

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Cameron Rowland bases his practice on re-contextualizing everyday objects in ways to highlight the economic and political forces that influence our immediate surroundings, exposing dynamics that are often overlooked, hiding in plain sight. Rowland often reclaims his materials from some previous use, scouring scrap yards and trolling on government auction site for mundane objects like a Volvo’s catalytic converter, some ripped out copper piping, or the heavy aluminum rings that are used to raise manhole covers.

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Colors:

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• powerless.a.01
• everyday.s.03
• object.n.01
• politics.n.01
• power.n.01
• resource.n.01