Jude Griebel (Canada)
Title: Pinocchio Pipeline
Medium: Air-drying clays, wood, adhesives, acrylic
Date of work: 2022
Dimensions: 17” x 12” x 60”
Description:
The mechanics of consumerism with a specific focus on resource extraction and its implications for land depletion and climate shift are the driving concerns behind these works. Merging human, animal and insect forms within architectural and natural environments, Jude Griebel’s sculptures become intricate cosmologies of real and imagined spaces. Using invention, humor, and speculation, Griebel’s work creatively depicts the physical and psychological fallout of our global predicament. Pinocchio Pipeline exemplifies his complex hybrid constructs identifying idiosyncratic narratives that explore fantastic expressions of our eco-anxiety.
Through his elastic sense of anatomy and scale, Griebel speculates on possibilities beyond planetary collapse by creating sculptures that fuse animate and inanimate forms into singular identities. The careful crafting of these works and their miniature details counter the central theme of hyperactive production. Laboriously carved from wood then painted, they represent hours of reflection on the meaning of active consumption and the struggle to imagine models beyond it.