Nick Batzell

Artist Statement

My work is about the family and history of sculpture. It is created in paper, cardboard, foam, plywood, soft and hardwood lumber, clay, plaster, bronze, stone, and the written word. Its genesis is a meditation on archetypal forms, symbols, and myths; I explore hidden, latent connections. My strategies include deconstruction, surrealism, and humor. I ask the viewer to look, care, and feel in the world again. 
 
The Wicked Land is a collection of sculptures inspired by a confluence and conversation between a deck of cards titled The Wicked Tarot and T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.” The inhabitants of The Wicked Land are maquettes made of trash, refuse, and sculptural media formed into archetypal, monumental, and poetic symbols. They speak of the artist’s relationship to aesthetic forms, layers of history, and potential futures of the urban fabric of the Greater Boston Area.