Willy's Q&A - with artist Jeremy Mayer

Bust II (2004) - Jeremy Mayer

While browsing on the photo gallery of Mayer's work on the site www.jeremymayer.com, I send a little Q&A to him and was generous of sending back with anwsers the very next day. Recognized for his sculptures of human and animal anatomy forms made entirely of typewriter parts, I asked if there's more to his works and may have any significance to each one of his pieces.

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Willy the Bum: Who or which of the sci-fi or any inspirations you had that affected you to make these sculptures?

Jeremy Mayer: My mechanical drawings have to do with two big influences- first, Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law of prediction posits that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Second, the impossibility of many of the inventions DaVinci proposed in sketches and drawings has always been very interesting to me- he knew they were almost possible. I think DaVinci was the first sci-fi/fantasy artist. Trying to mate those two ideas of hidden or esoteric technology and mechanical potential in natural forms has been endlessly fun for me, and though I don't draw as much any more, I've found that the typewriter stuff has a lot to offer me in that vein of interest.
I like robots and the aesthetic, but I don't purport to try to make robots at all. I'm just concentrating on making compelling figurative sculpture. A lot of what you see written about me online has to do with robots and sci-fi and such, but I said a lot more in those interviews that had to do with traditional sculptural and painting influences. I guess it's hard to escape the fact that these things look like Terminators.

Do you think your sculptures has serve any purposes or meanings to the world now?

I would hope that the work would compel people to think more about what's lying around not getting used around them, and to look at things more closely in general. People often say that I recycle, but really, all of these machines could be fixed and used, so to say that I'm recycling isn't accurate. I think there's a place for my work right now, but I don't need to say it. I think the work does. But I can say that I'm an agent of entropy.

Are most of your works more personal or eye-candy to the public?

The cats and bugs and such, the little whimsical things, those tend to be a product as opposed to a creative challenge. The human figures are definitely personal- I take as much time as it takes to put them together without concern for the bottom line.

If selling, what is the price range for each sculpture?

The last human figure was on sale at Device Gallery for $25,000, and the smaller pieces range from $2000 to $6000.

Any Canadian dates for exhibitions? (that question is the most cheesy I've come up with...)

I have a friend who is pitching a museum show in Calgary, but nothing concrete. I have no work left to show right now, so I'm starting from scratch, and I see little possibility of getting together enough work to do any kind of solo exhibition any time in the next year or two. Things seem to sell as soon as I finish them. Can't complain!

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