Taylor Apostol

Evan with Dishes

Hydrocal, terra cotta, acrylic paint, flock, metal leaf

31″ x 22″ x 12″

2024

Evan with Dishes is part of an ongoing series of painted ceramic and plaster sculptures that combine multiple sculptural elements into piles, representing evidence of daily habits and personal identity. I hand-build my sculptures in clay, working from photographs, still-life, or live models. This portrait bust utilizes relief-sculpture in the style of Roman or Renaissance busts, with contemporary imagery sculpted on the clothing like decorative accents. In making these piles, I want the sculptural qualities of a portrait to be considered in relation to an industrial item of human-making.

@taylorapostol

Taylor Apostol

Siena Day Trip Pile

Inspired by: Henry George Todd, Study of Strawberries

hand-carved alabaster

10″ x 16″ x 12″

2023

Carved by hand in alabaster, Siena Day Trip Pile is a mass of discarded gelato cups, water bottles, cigarette packets, and pigeon feathers. Removed from their usual place in a trash bin, scattered on the ground, or being driven to a dump or waste processing plant, I give them a life of their own. Much like Henry George Todd’s painting, Study of Strawberries, my sculpture is a still-life of a seemingly innocuous pile. On closer inspection, my pile examines the close relationship between food and the endless accumulation of trash.

@taylorapostol

Taylor Apostol

House Clothes

hand built terra cotta, acrylic paint, flock

6″ x 18″ x 14″

2020

House Clothes is part of a recent series focusing on familiar household items such as waste bins, grocery lists, CVS coupons, piles of clothing and dishes and hair scrunchies. Removed from their usual place on the floor, a shelf or forgotten under a dresser, I give them a life of their own. Additionally, by reframing these industrially fabricated, functional items as handmade objects in terra cotta, I ask the viewer to reconsider them for their sculptural, aesthetic and narrative capabilities.

@taylorapostol