Alain Co
Alain is a Graduate student at the University of Arizona seeking a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture. Originally from New Orleans, they received their Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art with a concentration in Sculpture from Southeastern Louisiana University. They have works installed on sites ranging from the Tucson high desert to the Ozark foothills.
Darling, Do You Remember Me?
These five sculptures total the first successful body of work to come out of my graduate experience.
They changed my life.
My first visit out to the Land With No Name captured me completely. With the gracious support of Ted and Kate I scouted for sites to install works I couldn't yet describe. All I knew at the time was that I needed to be there and I needed to make something to help me understand my connection to the space.
I gathered plant matter from each of the sites chosen on those first trips out the Land. Silicone molds were made from the gathered material where I would then reproduce the plants (prickly pear, cholla, desert spoon yucca, mesquite) in casting wax. The wax forms became building blocks from which I puzzled together the 5 structures that eventually became aluminum.
In their new Land With No Name homes, I'd like to hope that the sculptures feel welcomed by the plants that made them. When I was organizing this project, I titled it "Lebenswelt" after a concept regarding the relationship between personhood and place. Now, months after their installation, I find it difficult to call these beings anything at all. I find it fitting that much like the place that homes them, they would prefer to have no names.