ABOUT

Brian Savage is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer and sculptor. Working in a variety of mediums and materials, he often finds a complimentary tone and strength in metal, both cast and welded. In reclaimed and deteriorated materials he finds history and a new story, a new mythology to be ventured.

Savage’s subject matter has an equal diversity – musical instrument forms, land and ocean creatures, objects of tribal ritual, root meanings, additive homages to the masters of art and design, deterioration and abandoned civilizations, life cycles in gestation and countless more.

The images contained in his first books during the early 1970’s; The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau, impressed a curiosity and exploration of our planet, natural life cycles, the importance of caring for the environment and connecting as observers and stewards. Other books in the family library had great influence too – African Mythology and Art, The World of the American Indian  – countless hours taking in the images of tribal peoples and the sacred objects they created. National Geographic was like a dessert treat and in Conran’s New House Book, Brian discovered ideas can be sketched, planned and built into a reality.

Growing-up on the Maine coast, island life was filled with boats, extreme weather, self-sufficiency, lobster fishing and building micro structures made of sticks and pine needles for woodland spirits. Brian played among the ruins of a nineteenth-century granite quarrying and carving operation that had occupied one of the islands. Unearthed lichen-coated granite carvings or a broken piece of sculpture gave way to wonder about the people who hand-carved these stone works, what their lives were like and the stories they lived. From his father: taking a time for the senses – sniffing the air, listening to the birds before and after a storm can fill you with a different awareness, a kind of DYI primal reasoning over technology. These sensory moments create a type of visual poetry and aesthetic that Brian considers in each work.

Likewise, sci-fi and futuristic space explorations intrigued Brian. Concepts of the expanding universe, Star Trek’s prime directive (impacts from the human condition, influence, indulgence and dysfunction) fed a realization that it’s a necessity within the process to call into question the long term consequences of our attempts to fill our emptiness and consider our impact upon ourselves and the other life we share the Earth with.

Not all of Savage’s travels and living in different global locales have been for knowledge or learning of different cultures and applying it to art and design; the addictive adrenaline sports of windsurfing, kite-surfing and paragliding have put him as physically close to the mediums and movements of birds and dolphins as possible. More than just flying and swimming – it’s about playing and letting the body learn those environments with the sensation of carving at speed.

Brian attended Northeastern University, studying engineering and African Music and Culture, University of Maine – geology and art history, and Massachusetts College of Art – inter-related media, design, advertising and Japanese and Asian art. And later, a two year certificate program with UCLA for screen writing.

Casting a violin into the surf. Exposition DèconStruc, Les Iles de-la-Madeleine, Quebec.

Part performance and part acquisition of materials by way of destruction. In an attempt to see what may be experienced in terms of feeling and how a material behaves, Savage only plans loosely at the beginning stage and then moves with what transpires, trusting his senses and keeping open to further images and meanings.