Wes Rankin

I use culture as a vessel through which I can speak about my lived experiences. I come from a Sephardic and Appalachian family and a goddaughter to an Indigenous American family - which I do not culturally claim, however I do discuss growing up in a different home environment than my own. My concepts are pulled from life as a woman from these mixed cultures, surrounding my ethnic, religious, and spiritual identity, and has been shaped by different ways of life, family structures, and spiritual practices.   

Often my pieces contain many diverse materials with the goal of best representing the visual identity of the concept being discussed.  My primary materials are forged steel, cast iron, found object, woven fiber, ceramics, and beadwork.  I keep in mind that each of these material’s meanings vary greatly depending on the culture discussed.  Each piece is a balance of merging my cultures as they are blended in me, in a cohesive way while still maintaining the individuality and uniqueness of the lived experience of these different cultures.  My pieces come together to create the sense of a collaged self-portrait, reflecting my own life experience; I want to see my background represented in a careful and distinct composition that represents me. 

I recognize that there is no way for every person who views my art to have a clear understanding of every obscure cultural detail, as they are niche cultures.  However, I also want those obscure cultural details to be there for the viewers that do understand them.  I am trying to find a balance in which there is enough clear information for most viewers to get the meaning behind my work, and for a viewer from my heritage to understand the nuances of details.