I was raised in a home where art was not only a tradition but a survival instinct, a way of shaping chaos into something meaningful. My father, a pool guy who smelled of chlorine, spent his days scuba diving for leaks and his nights directing high school theater. My mother, an occupational therapist and ceramicist, mirrored my struggles, letting me see myself through her guidance, her criticism, and her generosity. It was in her sharp reflections that I began to understand the alchemy of creation: the transformation of pain and desire into something tangible. In the woods where my siblings and I grew up, we shaped our reality together, immersed in a world of building, exploration, and laughter. Being queer, I felt both apart from and connected to everything around me, a paradox that fueled my art. My work has always been a yearning between what is and what could be; a way to navigate the depths of my own soul.
In my practice, I build environments that invite and unsettle, drawing viewers in with comedy, beauty, and surreal exaggeration, only to confront them with hard truths about history and society. Manipulating materials from my life—childhood relics, domestic debris, odd mythologies—I reimagine meaning, crafting sculptures and installations that critique and treasure the culture that shaped them. These transformations, often grotesque yet meticulously composed, elevate the raw humanity of existence. In performance videos filmed from a first-person perspective, I blur the line between audience and performer, implicating the viewer in the unfolding narrative.
Thematically, my work often engages taboo subjects, challenging norms that perpetuate American violence. This involves an ongoing investigation of the nuclear family, capitalism, colonization, and sexuality. Recent projects interrogate the symbolism of the U.S. presidency, peeling back polished facades to reveal greed, corruption, and barbaric power. Across mediums, I create spaces where humor and honesty collide, inviting reflection on the intersections of the personal and the political.
At its heart, my work is a pursuit of transcendence—a reshaping of objects, ideas, and the self that embodies the desire for a reformed world. I believe evolution requires many small revolutions: the reclamation of what is broken and the insistence on looking deeper. Like my childhood explorations, my artistic practice is always digging deeper, grounded in the belief that curiosity and radical truth-telling are forces of positive change.
b. 1994 Worcester, Massachuetts
davidweswhite@gmail.com
