PUTNEY — “Are we all in over our heads?”
This is the question asked by Derek Parker, Landmark College's Assistant Professor of Art and Design, in his site specific installation at the Fine Arts Gallery of Landmark College.
According to a news release, “the installation leverages our familiarity and comfort with our own spaces, routines, and possessions, against the real and ever-increasing possibility of having it all disappear.”
Through community involvement and audience interaction, Parker incorporates the voices and ideas of the Landmark College community into his socially engaging new work, prompting viewers to ask, “Are we all in over our heads?”
Parker is a mixed-media installation artist whose work is an ongoing exploration into how we perceive and interact with the objects and places that surround us. His current work calls into question the nature of utility and purpose, inventing alternate realities for objects whose functions were previously thought to be fixed.
In 2009, Parker received a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Indiana, with an emphasis in sculpture and expanded formats. He lives in Western Massachusetts, where he maintains a studio and works for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, managing their fabrication shop.
Parker's active studio practice has led to a diverse body of work that incorporates sculptural objects, site-specific installations, and public art. His work has been shown in galleries, museums, and in public spaces across the country and abroad.