The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art believes in the power of the art of our time. Through programming, advocacy, and collaboration, we work with artists and communities to build a better world.
The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art believes in the power of the art of our time. Through programming, advocacy, and collaboration, we work with artists and communities to build a better world.
Apr 10, 2015 – May 2, 2015
Levi Jackson’s work exposes illusions that exist within Western American culture. Using materials from army surplus, agricultural supply, shooting ranges and motor sports stores, Jackson’ Bushwacker measures the past and present pulse of the “West”.
Jackson relies on objects and images that reference the early pioneer’s westward push and the resulting settlement of a place seen by many as the definitive representation of freedom. Yet such concepts of liberty and expansion are still exploited today by those who feel they are warranted to explore and consume the land and the creatures that exist there unabashedly. Ultimately, it is these actions that may damage or destroy the very freedom that defines the West’s rugged and pristine landscape.
Bushwacker contains an inherent aggressiveness, but paired with curious or often comic elements. This dichotomy is evidence in his use of the three-wheeler, a strange and dangerous all-terrain vehicle that was banned from production for safety concerns, and yet, enabled an average person to explore and travel to previously uncharted territory – much the same way as early explorers of the American West.
Jackson balances humor and seriousness, comfort and bizarre, pathetic and monumental, in order to better illustrate the complexities that are imprinted on the American West. For Jackson, there is something profound and tragic that exists in this culture, landscape, and mentality.
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