Jamey Morrill | LARVAE

J A M E Y M O R R I L L

L A R V A E

LARVAE by JAMEY MORRILL is comprised of sculptural forms made from plastic bottles, monofilament, and drywall screws. These odd, yet beautifully translucent and luminous forms resemble tightly wound chrysalides seemingly in a dormant state.

"In our culture, mass production of products appears similar to the reproductive strategy of insects – where risk and cost are spread thin as gossamer over many to assure the advancement of a few,” notes Morrill.

Copyright © Yellow Peril Gallery, Providence, Rhode IslandAll Photographs © Jamey Morrill / Inside Photo: Emma Fague

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LARVAE, 2012, Jamey Morrill

LARVAE, a sculpture installation by Jamey Morrill at Yellow Peril, consists of mundane, seemingly benign materials that collectively become imposing and uncanny.

Jamey Morrill is a Providence-based sculptor and adjunct professor of art at Rhode Island College in Providence, RI. In recent years Morrill’s sculpture has become increasingly sprawling and site-specific, with emphasis on mass-pro-duced materials and organic forms. Often using common-place materials, such as plastic bottles, chicken wire, and duct tape, Morrill constructs sculptures that are outwardly cerebral and systematic but that are fundamentally random and irrational.

Morrill recently completed a residency at Fountainhead in Miami and was nominated for the Rappaport Prize from the DeCordova Museum in 2010 and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in 2009. Previous select solo and group exhibitions include: Locust Projects, Miami (2011 & 2012), Curfman Gallery at Colorado State University (2011), Maya Allison Projects (2010), Aqua Art Fair, Miami (2009) and David Winton Bell Gallery (2005). He received his M.F.A. in Sculpture from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2002 and his B.A in Art History from Bowdoin College in 1992.

LARVAE 001, 2012

Plastic Bottles, Monofilament Line, Dry-Wall Screws

22" L x 15" W x 18" H

2.1 lbs | $1,239

4 LARVAE | JAMEY MORRILLyellowperilgallery.com

What first drew you to large-scale installation work?

I don’t recall making a conscious decision to build large installation sculpture. I think there must have been a collision of factors involved/ My

first sculpture instructor, Imi Hwangbo, was an ambitious, young artist whose work was often sprawling. In class Imi showed slides of similarly

large-scale sculpture projects by other artists. She invited guest speakers such as Patrick Dougherty and Joe Seipel, whose art was not merely

large-scaled, but also odd or witty or unclassifiable. The lasting lesson I drew from Imi’s class was the wide-open, even lawless, nature of

sculpture. To me sculpture seemed at once a laboratory and playground. Even now, sculpture feels liberating to me – a room without walls.

Apart from Imi’s influence on my early development, there was an energy and enthusiasm I felt at age 27 of having finally found what I

wanted to do with my life. Perhaps I possessed a suppressed energy that was suddenly released. Maybe this translated most naturally into big

projects rather than modestly-sized objects.

Your work seems to address a juxtaposition of assumed opposites, such as strange almost negative forms assembled from mundane everyday objects. How did you get interested in this sort of dialogue?

I wish I could say that I were a systematic thinker. My choices as an artist are not deliberate in the way the arguments of a philosopher are.

I am continually drawn to mundane, mass-produced materials in a visceral way. I do not choose a material because I see it as a vehicle for

some argument I am trying to build, but because I respond to it emotionally. Many times people have seen politics in my sculpture, which is

possible, but not intentional on my part.

Yellow Peril Gallery Curator Robert P. Stack delves deeper into the mind of Jamey Morrill to gain

more insight into the origin of LARVAE.

LARVAE | JAMEY MORRILLyellowperilgallery.com 5

With the Larvae series, there appears to be this comparison drawn between natural organic process and man-made mass-produced industrialization. Can you expound upon this coupling of what is often assumed to be polar opposites?

I feel there is a tension that results from the juxtaposition of

outwardly dissimilar or opposing materials. In Larvae, for instance,

there is a combination of plastic bottles and drywall screws.

Normally, this combination would result in a failure of the bottle, and

likely, a mess. But in Larvae the screws act as an anchorage for the

monofilament, which binds the bottle forms together.

Despite making the construction of the forms possible, the drywall

screws are undeniably aggressive, even violent in appearance. For

me this dual quality of the drywall screws rings true. This quality

applies to nature and culture, though we often prefer a sanitized

view of the world – where there is harmony and no discord, and

where there is a clear line between man and wild nature. This view

would shift, I expect, and perhaps also our self-image, if we suddenly

had to slaughter an animal for our next meal.

So, as sterile as a plastic bottle may be, it is nonetheless derived from

ancient, decomposed marine plants and animals, now buried deep

below ground. Maybe, then, it is not a such a stretch to envision a

plastic bottle reborn as something alive, such as an insect larva.

LARVAE 002, 2012


28" L x 14" W x 15" H

2.1 lbs | $1,239


LARVAE 003, 2012


36" L x 11" W x 15" H

2.8 lbs | $1,652



LARVAE 004, 2012


24" L x 18" W x 22" H

2.5 lbs | $1,475

LARVAE 005, 2012


22" L x 13" W x 16" H

2.0 lbs | $1,180

LARVAE 006, 2012


24" L x 13" W x 15" H

2.0 lbs | $1,180

LARVAE 007, 2012


26" L x 15" W x 14" H

2.4 lbs | $1,416

fs 032, 2012


29" L x 18" W x 19" H

3.3 lbs | $1,947


There is a certain minimalist approach in terms of palette, materials and forms. What inspires this?

I am fascinated by the idea that an oak tree can spring from an acorn,

or an immense Bach Fugue from a single musical idea. I once read

that the first job of the artist is to establish a small set of rules and

restrictions. The second job is to exhaust those rules and limits. This is

always the way I have proceeded. Limits are liberating. Have you ever

seen the home-made soccer balls children use in impoverished, rural

Africa? They are more imaginative, inventive, and exuberant than

anything I’ve seen in Chelsea lately.

How is your current work evolving from past successes?

Well, as a rule, I am trying to compress my work, that is, to work

smaller. I am interested to find out if I can make smaller pieces

without losing the intensity and ambition of earlier installations. So,

yes, I am trying to have it both ways. I want to continue the unruly

and playful nature of previous sculpture projects while working on

the wall at a modest scale. Larvae is perhaps my last tango with the

large format. But who knows? I have another idea I want to explore. It

involves a large outdoor site, sound, and lights. So, in short, I am not

truly reformed.

LARVAE 008, 2012


23" L x 16: W x 15" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 009, 2012


19" L x 13" W x 14" H

1.8 lbs | $1,062

LARVAE 010, 2012


30" L x 13" W x 16" H

2.5 lbs | $1,475

LARVAE 011, 2012


27" L x 13" W x 16" H

2.4 lbs | $1,416

LARVAE 012, 2012


12" L x 19" W x 19"

2.5 lbs | $1,475

LARVAE 013, 2012


25" L x 11" W x 18" H

1.9 lbs | $1,121

LARVAE 014, 2012


21" L x 15" W x 15" H

1.9 lbs | $1,121

LARVAE 015, 2012


27" L x 18" W x 21" H

2.6 lbs | $1,534

LARVAE 016, 2012


21" L x 12" W x 14" H

1.9 lbs | $1,121

LARVAE 017, 2012


23" L x 13" W x 15" H

2.2 lbs | $1,298

LARVAE 018, 2012


24" L x 14" W x 15" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 021, 2012


25" L x 12" W x 15" H

2.0 lbs | $1,180

LARVAE 020, 2012


27" L x 13" W x 15" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 022, 2012


19" L x 12" W x 17" H

1.9 lbs | $1,121


LARVAE 019, 2012


26" L x 13" W x 16" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357


LARVAE 028, 2012


32" L x 14" W x 28" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 023, 2012


24" L x 19" W x 18" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 024, 2012


20" L x 12" W x 14" H

1.7 lbs | $1,003

LARVAE 025, 2012


22" L x 13" W x 14" H

1.8 lbs | $1,062

LARVAE 026, 2012


22" L x 16" W x 15" H

2.3 lbs | $1,357

LARVAE 027, 2012


33" L x 17" W x 18" H

2.6 lbs | $1,534

LARVAE 029, 2012


26" L x 16" W x 16" H

2.2 lbs | $1,298

LARVAE 030, 2012


20" L x 14" W x 14" H

1.9 lbs | $1,121

LARVAE 031, 2012


20" L x 15" W x 15" H

1.8 lbs | $1,062

LARVAE 034, 2012


20"L x 12" W x 12" H

1.3 lbs | $767

LARVAE 033, 2012


25" L x 19" W x 16" H

3.1 lbs | $1,829

LARVAE 035, 2012


18" L x 16" W x 17" H

1.8 lbs | $1,062


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LARVAE © 2012 Yellow Peril GalleryArtworks © Jamey Morrill

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher

EDITORRobert P. Stack

PUBLISHERYellow Peril Gallery60 Valley Street #5Providence, RI 02909yellowperilgallery.com

PRODUCTION + DESIGNYellow Peril Gallery

PHOTOGRAPHYJamey MorillEmma Fague: p. 3

INTERVIEWCOLLECT, Winter 2012

LARVAE at Yellow Peril GalleryExhibition Dates: 11/15/12 - 12/09/12

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Jamey Morrill | LARVAE