65GRAND, CHICAGO
Ian Pedigo is an alleyway shopper, a wreck collector, a composer of rubbish. His sculptures unify some of the disparate nameless bits of our built-environment, recognizable only insofar as they are incomplete. Like an alien amateur archaeologist, Pedigo finds significance in materials that might otherwise be easily spurned as he attempts to reconstruct the fleeting Human from its trail of broken discards. In addition to being props for social commentary, Pedigo’s sculptures ask us to contemplate the possibility of having a meaningful aesthetic experience in the presence of a pile of scrap. It is difficult to ascertain the extent to which Pedigo’s lowly materials have been organized; they are either sensibly designed to represent entropy and decay or else they are products of chance and free association, as precariously selected as they are assembled. Pedigo throws our refuse right back at us, unrequested but requited nevertheless.
Published in Newcity (March 23, 2007)
