Jason Ferguson:
Deconstructive sculptor
The floor of Jason Ferguson's studio is covered with a teal chairskin rug. It was once a comfy recliner, but Jason skinned it -- the same way someone would skin a bear -- and made a rug out of it. He's also performed an autopsy on a chair and dissected shoes.
Every time the 27-year-old dissects a shoe or performs an autopsy on a chair, he's using the real tools and procedures someone would use if they were skinning an animal or performing an autopsy on a person.
"It's important that the procedure is authentic," he said. "I wanted it to be real, wanted to do the procedure on something real."
Before Jason did his chair autopsy, he studied with a pathophysiologist and worked on a human cadaver. He built a real autopsy table out of stainless steel, and wore scrubs, a mask and booties when he cut into the chair.
The dissected shoe hangs on the wall of his studio, with thin metal pins holding back each layer of leather and lining. It was just a shoe, but it looked like it was something more -- that the layers of leather could easily have been layers of skin.
"I want people to have a visceral reaction to something we already know," Jason said. "Hopefully the reactions just start as snickering, but then questions start coming. Why would someone take the time to do this? Then realize there is something there."
He takes objects people are familiar with, then reconceptualizes it. His chair is now a rug. And as part of his graduate program at the University of Delaware, his professors encourage him to explore that kind of thing.
But Jason's training is traditional. While he was an undergrad at Towson he found he liked the three-dimensional design the best, and did a lot of work with bronze and plaster casting and steelwork, learning the basics.
He wanted to get his ideas about theory and semiotics across, which is why he came to grad school. His next piece is going to be a taxidermy of a lamp and an end table, using the proper technique of taxidermy, of course.
Jason uses his art to raise questions. And if he's done that, he said he's accomplishing what he wants to do.
His autopsied chair is on display at the Maryland Art Place in Baltimore through May 6.
