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University of Montana student describes untitled mixed‑media sculpture made from salvaged materials
Summary
Undergraduate Clay Mon presented an untitled mixed‑media work made from salvaged household materials, describing his material-gathering process, construction (brads and screws joining 4–5 sections) and intent to experiment with adding more readable content to the piece.
Clay Mon, an undergraduate student at the University of Montana, described an untitled mixed‑media sculpture made from salvaged household materials during a student presentation.
Mon said the work combines nails, thread, phone‑book pages and magazine photographs embedded in layered surfaces that reward close viewing. “When you get up close to it, with a lot of saturation of texture, there's, you know, nails and thread and, phone book pages, and there's little bits of text and photographs from magazine,” he said, adding that from a distance the piece reads primarily as a textured object but “come closer to it, it becomes more and more apparent and sort of enticing.”
Mon told the audience he gathers materials by sight and texture—“pallets and old wood and, you know, sheet metal siding”—and assembles components in sections that he fastens with steel brads and internal screws. He described taking “about 4 or 5” smaller parts, joining them with brads and then using screws to combine those into two larger pieces, and said the construction allows the work to be taken apart and rearranged.
The artist said his process mixes intuition and deliberate revision. In response to a moderator's question—“Is it more intuitive or intellectual?”—Mon said it is “intuitive,” but added that he does not accept everything that spontaneously occurs; instead “there's definitely a give and take” in which spontaneous decisions are followed by adjustment. He cited the influence of Aschenberg on his practice of collecting street materials and incorporating them into studio work.
Mon described other methods, including cutting existing paintings and incorporating carpet and other household items into sculptural assemblages. He said he thinks of titles as mental prompts rather than literal descriptions and that he would “like to take it a couple steps further and, put some more content into it or the readable content,” though he did not specify how or when he would add that content.
The presentation focused on the sculpture's materials, construction and the artist's intent to remain open to experimentation; no formal action or decision was taken during the session.
