Adam John Manley
Small Craft (Makeshift)You Are Here (Installation images)drawing/sketching/misc2010200920082004-2008Other Projects
Trained in Furniture making, design, construction, and general building of things, I create large scale sculptural objects that are meant to speak of and interact with the landscape. I am interested in the wide expanses of land and space that we inhabit. Having grown up in the Adirondack park in Upstate New York and exploring the various natural and man made areas of the Northeast and some throughout the West, I have a natural fascination with these spaces and how we inhabit them. In my sculptural work, I try to play with the sense of place that exists in everyone. I employ recognizable man made forms from familiar settings in order to create objects that warp this sense of place. I use altered scale, juxtaposition of disparate imagery, and carefully chosen settings within the landscape to force the viewer to reassess his or her surroundings and reconsider their perspectives of the spaces that they are accustomed to.

It is my hope that the sculptures that I make will instill a mix of emotions in people. Many of my most recent works contain elements of fear, safety, watchfulness, wonder, humor, and confusion simultaneously. my goal is that the objects themselves will offer the viewer an opportunity to rethink his or her own comfort zones and senses of place.