Bjorn Copeland is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Driven by an interest in change, repetition, and the wear of repetitive function over time, Copeland’s work can be divided into three simultaneous practices: kinetic and stationary sculpture, pattern drawings and collage. His solo exhibition at Daniel Reich Gallery will open in October.
Copeland’s work is labor-intensive, involving inherent systems based on the inevitability of things wearing down almost as a form of variation. Rhythm, melody, and architectural structures are other apparent themes. Copeland believes that an underlying system makes the work subconsciously accessible, allowing the viewer to intuitively approach something that might otherwise be complicated and abstract.
Influenced by crossover artist/musicians, Copeland’s work relates to John Cage’s musical scores and the residual documents that accompanied performances from the Fluxus movement. Early works by Forcefield, the Rhode Island collective, and the multi-media sculptures and drawings of Mike Kelley are also among his influences.
Copeland’s kinetic sculptures combine found objects, custom motors and sometimes early electronic musical equipment. Using distinctly rough but precise construction – bolts, string, pins and elecrical tape – the sculptures often involve a humorous element.
Rendered in fine color ink lines on newsprint or colored paper, Copeland’s drawings involve subtle abstract change reminiscent of musical notation or scientific mapping. Built up in hand-drawn layers from black and white under-drawings, the cyclical process of making the drawing becomes symbolic of change itself possessing an interwoven quality that the artist feels relates directly to daily life – like a schedule.
In his collages, images (some collected during the artist’s childhood) are put into new contexts, again indicating change. Culled from random sources and science fiction books, Copeland’s collage fragments are also found at home in things he has lived with for many years. Creating a new context for an existing image allows him to begin to make sense of them. He is ultimately interested in the process of creating order from what might be perceived as a state of confusion; this relates directly to the musical process, in which it is necessary to organize, yet productive to work in an experimental and intuitive way.
Copeland has been included in group shows at Galerie Daniel Bucholz, in Curious Crystals of Unusual Purity at PS1 curated by Bob Nickas and Steve Lafreniere, at D’Amelio Terras and a forthcoming exhibition “The Pattern Playback” at The Moore Space in Miami, FL. He is also a member of the band Black Dice.