Russ Fogle is an artist and studio furniture maker working at the intersection of traditional craft and industrial technology. Influenced by an early career in engineering (BS Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2013), and many months spent sleeping on the ground (Pacific Crest Trail, 2016), his current efforts work toward situating the vast, messy web of technological achievement underpinning human culture as an emergent natural phenomenon not dissimilar to the texture of a rock. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Artist’s Statement:
I explore the relationship between objects, industry, and culture. With a background in industrial manufacturing and traditional craft, my work treats the forms and processes of both machine and hand with equal reverence. At this intersection, distinctions between industrial and handmade, digital and physical, built and natural, present and eternal dissolve into surreal objects difficult to place in any particular category. Here, machine components are raw material on par with wood or clay. The hand executes processes that are typically assigned to machines, and vice versa. Algorithmic textures are promoted to ornamentation. In this way, my practice allows me to build a world that acknowledges the complexity of progress, that values invisible labor, and that finds beauty in the generic.