Michal Fargo

Post Fossil

In my work I am driven by textures, materials, shapes and surfaces. I deal with the thin line that lies between imitation and interpretation, I use naïve, sometimes even barbaric, working methods while handling industrial materials. I am trying to capture a longing for authentic nature, and at the same time celebrate progress and its many benefits; maybe combine both emotions into one. My main ambition is to pursue authenticity and a personal aesthetic perception. I tend to get lost between the definitions of art, craft, and design. I find those semantics boring and unnecessary. 

In “Post Fossil” I continue perusing my growing interest in cave man/primal aesthetics. I am mostly interested in how life was experienced by those individuals, what smells, colours and tastes were they experiencing. During a trip to Israel I have visited the Israel Museum where I encountered an exhibit of the first ever found bonfire. I thought about how random this exhibit is, just a pile of rocks, literally. This encounter was the start of my thinking process towards my degree show project. Another element that fascinates me in my making and thinking process is authenticity. I try and imagine the origins of the nicely pugged clay I work with, I am interested in letting it be closer to its natural state, before being taken from the quarry. With those ideas in mind, I started working on various types of vessels and sculptures. The rough rock shape is the main element I use, I try adding to it some other cave man elements such as meat and fur. I enjoy the narrative of the primal hunter and I try to create objects that are contemporary but at the same time quote this aesthetic and maybe bridge these gaps in time, or even create an imaginative period that never really existed.