Leah Medin - BLUE COMET
I recently finished a two-month artist residency at the Kunstkollektivet 8B in Unnerud, Denmark. I lived in a scenic environment close to the ocean, forest, and farmland. I found inspiration from the landscape: open fields of grass, wavy hills, and large puddles of water reflecting the sky. In response, I created several sculptural installations using different kinds of colorful plastic material. Each piece was vibrant against the landscape and focused on the material’s shape, color, and use of repetition. The countryside was quiet and desolate in the winter and the work was experienced alone. These sculptures changed my relationship to the environment.
Blue Comet was one of the first pieces I imagined while I was in Denmark. I brought a roll of blue dog waste bags with me, thin, light blue, transparent pieces of plastic, cut into perfect rectangles. I experimented with the material outside and in the studio and made several installation drawings. In some way, it was this material that influenced the work I made in Denmark. There is something humorous about using the blue plastic dog waste bags in a repetitive grid-like format. I work with the material in a way that will preserve it for future use. This installation explores the material and its response to wind and light.
Leah Medin (b.1991) is a visual artist working in fibers, sculpture, painting, installation, and photography. Medin received a BFA in Fibers from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2013. She studied as an exchange student at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the spring of 2012. In July 2018, Medin participated in a two-week artist workshop at the Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design in Entebbe, Uganda. She has attended artist residencies at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME), Monson Arts (Monson, ME), and Kunstkollektivet 8B (Unnerud, Denmark). She is the weaving studio supervisor at Gateway Arts, a studio art program that works with adults with developmental disabilities, in Brookline, MA.