STATEMENT
it always comes back to bleeding out,
vivisection–
an intricate display of the parts of myself that transformed
and lost any sense of clarity along the way
i spilled my guts so you don’t have to–
i rearranged them because that was inevitable anyways
my history exists within sentimental objects in the same way it is transcribed onto my skin–showing signs of everything but revealing nothing immediately specific or recognizable without speculation. these objects are those i have carried with me and held close– stained bedsheets, grandparent scissors, used bandages, surgery drains, hrt supplies, charred instruments, artifacts from my artmaking process– those saturated with personal memories, conflict, and weight. tending to these objects is a ritual of mourning, examination, and meditation. this ritual is an exploitation and exploration of a worldview shaped by trauma, Queerness and neurodivergence– one that is foundationally contradictory and subversive.
my practice is informed by radical Queer conversations and the dynamic character of memory and perception. i examine how personal and object history mutually inform and reshape each other in a highly unstable, fluid manner. the act of sculpting offers a physical, bodily dimension to the ongoing interaction of interpretation and sentimentalization.
i consider how the labor of holding onto something saturated in memories is exhausting. continuing to work with the sentimental object, allowing it to transform in the same ways i have, and continuing to bleed myself out onto it is an extension of this labor. my work is a language of self-destruction as much as it is one of self-actualization.
like pulling my nerves out in one,
drawn out
motion
and accepting the way it felt
to be reborn
to be so tense–
to analyze my body like a surgeon
if i had to dissect myself limb from limb:
i am queering the politicized, economized, colonized, and cisgender-heteronormative conceptions of “genitals,” “gender,” and “sexuality” by discussing them in blurred, grotesque, and multl-faceted visualizations. interlacing these divisive categorizations with conversations of memory, experience, and trauma further abstracts them and strips them of their ability to control through discipline, exclusion, and division.
i refuse the notion of digestibility* as a discursive response to the normative structures of classification used to otherize, control, and subjugate living bodies. my work simultaneously occupies and enmeshes the spaces of yonic and phallic, feminine and masculine, bodily and abstract. my work rejects binary distinctions, as does my very existence, so as to support the effort to dismantle and disempower these arbitrary sociological distinctions through an ontology of Queerness, transience, and abstraction.
*digestibility as in: having single interpretations, clearly defined storylines or origins, falling under binary categories or constraints, readily understandable/translatable.
i inscribe discarded* objects with a significance of Queerness, self-actualization, and self-abstraction. i am dissecting and monumentalizing the inscriptions of trauma on my body, mind, and perception. i am transmuting these inscriptions onto objects and my interactions with these objects as an extension of self, which ultimately depends on the act of deconstructing myself and in many instances causing direct or implied harm to myself.
*as in: objects i have intentionally held onto when their ‘use-value’ was expended, for reasons of personal connection to the object and the history it endured. sentimentality is the appreciation beyond the use-value of an object. this appreciation is founded in emotional connections, relationships, memories, or symbols. honoring sentimentality is inherently anticapitalist.
i see self-mutilation as an empowering response to a system that perpetuates violence on and between bodies; taking it into my own control redirects that authority and subverts the act of injury into an act of poetry. i must be clear that i am not romanticizing the act of self-harm, but am rather accepting it as something that has been necessary to my resistance and recovery. instead of being bled out against my will, i am bleeding out on my own terms. this metaphor extends into the act of writing poetry, sharing revealing work, and splaying my most private guts for the universe to gaze upon. there is something profound in the act of survival as an abject being, and oftentimes survival necessitates some degree of self-immolation. i am a controlled burn in an overgrown forest of traumas. i am the matches that started the fire. i am the forest.
tangentially, but equally as important:
i am deeply connected to the Cast Iron Practice and Community as an alternative, experimental space. Cast Iron is my chosen family, Cast Iron is the reason i regained my voice. i believe:
Iron is elemental: it is the universe, it is the blood in our veins. to work with Iron is to connect to everything we have been forced to abandon under capitalism. to cast Iron is to reject alienation.
contemporary Iron Casting scenes are spaces that teach resilience, inner and collective strength, and the skills required to be adaptable, grounded, and proactive.
contemporary Iron Casting rejects the western art canon and superstructures that uphold white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonialism.
the Iron Casting Community cultivates innovation, curiosity, and experimentation– the very things under attack in an increasingly conservative geopolitical context.
transforming an industrial material with an exploitative and otherizing history into a space for reclamation, experimentation, and community-building is revolutionary. we have placed power back in the hands of the worker.
to cast Iron in the contemporary age is to be part of a revolutionary, resistant, empowered subculture.
my practice can be loosely typified as the (de/re)construction, abjectification, mourning, and Queerization of sentimental spaces and objects through a perspective informed by trauma, neurodivergence, and Queerness.
i am the act of nailing my bones to the wall
and stringing my arteries out
i am delicate i am soft
i am a fucking pansy
i am the blood in my gums
i am the last draw of a cigarette
i am the burning in my lungs
to say you know me is to ignore everything
CV
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture Candidate, Maryland Institute College of Art, May 2026 (Anticipated)
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, Arizona State University, May 2023
Bachelor of Arts in Museum Studies, Arizona State University, May 2023
2021 - 2023
Paid Internship through Magnum Companies, Art and Industrial Fabrication, November 2021 - January 2023
COMMISSIONS / PROJECTS
2022
EMERGE, Festival for Mesa Arts Center, November 19th. Fabrication of aluminum and acrylic tables, cardboard vessels, cloth drapery. Covering 600+ linear feet with the theme of “table”
Canal Convergence + EMERGE, Fabricated steel stand for Joe Austin’s mobile about the water cycle and treatment system in Arizona, shown at both events
Vital Signs Ocean Wave Sculpture, Produced Ocean Wave Sculpture for Tempe Center for the Arts, Employed by Dreamstate Content for the project, Displayed at Post Office on Mill Avenue. Created June - July, installed July, On display through September
EXHIBITIONS
Museums
2024 - 2026
Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum, Solsberry Indiana. “dearly departed” and “akin to burning” installed on-site for a minimum of two years. July 2024 - July 2026
University Galleries
2024
I Tried Using Words. Rinehart Graduate Exhibition, Maryland Institute College of Art. Leidy / Riggs Gallery. November 21st - December 6th
Full Circle Western Cast Iron Art Alliance National Juried Exhibitions, 8th Biennial Western Cast Iron Art Alliance in El Cajon, CA October 30th - November 3rd
2023
Multidimensional ASU Gallery 100, May 1-5th
Forging Realities VR, AR, and Sculpture Show in Hayden Library, Tempe AZ, April 25th - May 2nd
Neon Hands ASU Harry Wood Annex, March - April
DOES ANYONE ACTUALLY CARE? Senior BFA Show, ASU Gallery 100, February 13 - 17
2022 - 2023
End of Semester Foundry Show ASU Harry Wood Annex, December 2022 - January 2023
Winter BFA Juried Show ASU Harry Wood Gallery, Juried by Robert Gentile, December 2022 - January 2023
2022
Carne Diem ASU Gallery 100 Tempe, AZ, December 5-9th
Prototypes ASU Harry Wood Annex, Tempe AZ, November 21st - December 3rd
The Speculative Object VR and physical exhibition in connection with the 9th International Conference of Contemporary Cast Iron Art, organized by Mary Neubauer and Hannah Makkonen, HTW Campus, Berlin, Germany, September 16th - 20th
Pump Up The Volume ASU Gallery 100 Tempe, AZ, May 2nd - 6th
Terrain ASU Harry Wood Annex, Tempe, AZ, May - August
2021 - 2022
The Usual Suspects ASU Gallery 100, Tempe, AZ, December 6th - January 13th
The Art of Trophies and Medallions ASU Harry Wood Annex, Tempe, AZ, December 6th - January 13th
2021
My Personal Chimaera Concepts ASU Harry Wood Annex, Tempe, AZ, Fall
What I Did Last Summer ASU Harry Wood Annex, Tempe, AZ, Summer
Independent Venues
2025
Thread, Make Studio Gallery, Exhibition for Baltimore’s local disabled artists, Baltimore MD, January 16th - February 15th
2023
WORK! COLOR! LIGHT! FOUND:RE Contemporary, Phoenix AZ, June 2nd - August 27th
Metrodimensional Park Place, Phoenix AZ, May 11-14th
2022 - 2023
The Tactile and Tenuous Exhibition Virtual, curated by Katie Hovencamp and Marc La Pointe, https://tactileandtenuous.wordpress.com/oliver-charles/
Fire and Water. USPS Office on Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ, September 2022 - February 2023
2022
Zardust Pop-Up Show Ziggie’s Music, Phoenix, AZ, December 2nd
Western Cast Iron Art Juried Exhibition during Western Conference of Cast Iron Art, Vermillion, South Dakota, October 5th - 9th
Klein Eisen Pop-Up Cast Iron Exhibition during 9th International Conference of Contemporary Cast Iron Art (ICCCIA), Gastro-Norm Cafe, Berlin, Germany, September 16th -20th
Calculations: Units of Measurement Alte Rathaus and Heidecksburg Rudolstadt, Thüringen, July 14th - August 31st & during ICCCIA in Berlin, Germany, September 16th - 20th
Fire and Water USPS Office on Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ, September 2022 - February 2023
Vital Signs USPS Office on Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ,July - September 2022
2018
An Artistic Discovery Congressional Art Show AE England Building, Phoenix, AZ, May
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2023 - 2025
Community Technician and Metals/Welding Instructor at Open Works, Baltimore, MD, October 13th 2023- Present
Studio Assistant for John Ruppert, Baltimore, MD, Assisting with metal chasing, sand mold making, and resin 3D print post-processing. September 5th 2023- Present
2024
Studio Technician— Sculpture Lab at Maryland Institute College of Art. September 3rd - Present
Western Cast Iron Art Alliance 8th Biennial Conference, El Cajon, CA. October 31st - November 2nd.
Sculpture Trails Internship — July
Guest Artist at Peep Iron Pour Desert Iron Symposium at Arizona State University. March 25th - April 1st
2023
Project Assistant for ASU Sculpture Department and Bruce Ward for metal fabrication, wax working, metal-casting, and metal finishing, June 12 - August 11th
Skilled Foundry Assistant for Mary Neubauer, assisting with production of her sculptural work. March 7 - August 11
Iron Light Residency Internship, Western North Carolina Sculpture Center, May 24th - June 7th
Down on the Farm Iron Pour with Kelly Ludeking, Decorah, Iowa, June 29th - July 2nd
ASU Undergraduate Foundry Teaching Assistant for Mary Neubauer, Spring semester
Peep Iron Pour Desert Iron Symposium at Arizona State University, April 1st
Iron Tribe Iron Pour at New Mexico Highlands University, March 2nd - 4th
2022 - 2023
ASU Sculpture Studio Monitor/Technician under Dustin Hesser, October 1st 2022 - May 15th 2023
Fahrenheit 2150 (ASU Foundry Club). Primary Financial, Media, and Engagement Coordinator, Elected President in Spring of 2022, Vice President in Fall 2021, Grant-Writer for 8 visiting artists (over $9,000), involved until May 15th 2023
Fabrication of Shoreline Station Project for Mary Lucking through Magnum Companies, January 15th - January 2023
2022
Koji Iron Pour at Scottsdale Community College, November 5th
ASU Herberger Institute Art Fest 2022 promotional arts festival, responsible for tabling for Fahrenheit 2150 Foundry Club, pewter casting demonstration and promotion for the annual Koji Iron Pour, November 4th
ASU Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for Sculpture One with Rebecca Pipkin, Fall semester
Anderson Ranch Summer Workshop: Body Impressions: Casting, Fabrication, and Found Materials with Jeffrey Meris, July 25th - 29th
Panel at 9th ICCCIA: Iron, Protest, and Identity. Berlin, Germany, in collaboration Marc La Pointe, Liz Ensz, and Brittany Weekley, September 19th
Peep Iron Pour Desert Iron Symposium at Arizona State University, April 2nd - 3rd
Down on the Farm Iron Pour with Kelly Ludeking, Decorah, Iowa, June 29th - July 4th
2021 - 2022
Restoration of East Lake Monument through Magnum Co., November 9th - January 14th
ASU Herberger Institute Art Fest 2021 promotional arts festival, responsible for tabling for Fahrenheit 2150 Foundry Club, pewter casting demonstration, October 30th
ASU Metals Club Officer
2021
Koji Iron Pour at Scottsdale Community College, November 13th
Peep Iron Pour Desert Iron Symposium at Arizona State University, April
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024
MICA Graduate Research Development Grant
H.H. Harris Metallurgical Scholarship
Maryland State Arts Council Grant for Artists
2023
HIDA Moeur Award for high academic standing as an undergraduate at ASU
Leslie King Hammond Graduate Fellowship for studies at MICA for recognition of potential community and social contributions
2022
H.H. Harris Metallurgical Scholarship for fine-art metal-casting and metallurgical research and experimentation
Tuition Scholarship for Summer 2022 Workshops at Anderson Ranch, CO, Body Impressions: Casting, Fabrication, and Found Materials with Jeffrey Meris, July 25th - 29th
2019 - 2022
Dean’s List, ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022
New American University Scholar President’s Award
The Worth and Dot Howard Foundation Scholarship
2019
Choate Family Scholarship
Phoenix Union Foundation for Education Scholarship
International Baccalaureate Diploma
2018
Best Mixed Media, An Artistic Discovery Congressional Art Show. Phoenix, AZ.
Honorable Mention for Excellence in Visual Arts, Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.
Gold Key Award for Excellence in Visual Arts, Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 - 2023
The Tactile and Tenuous Exhibition Virtual, curated by Katie Hovencamp and Marc La Pointe, https://tactileandtenuous.wordpress.com/oliver-charles/
2022
ASU School of Art EBlast Newsletter December 2022 Virtual, “FULL-TIME” featured as cover for the newsletter, corresponding Instagram post https://www.instagram.com/p/CmZsBaIhMu6/
ASU School of Art Radiate Newsletter October-November 2021, Virtual, concerning participation in ICCCIA #9
“The Art of Trophies and Medallions” Art catalog from ASU and Global Sport Matters, not a battleground featured on page 19