My name is Logan Wiggins and I am a 23 year old queer multidisciplinary artist from Bakersfield, CA and based in Los Angeles. While painting was truly my firsrt love, my work consists mostly of various forms of sculpture these days. Over time have created in a range of mediums including oil painting, mold making, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, collage work, 3D modeling, welding and more.
My work is about systems and interconnectivity. My work is about the intrinsic connection between the human body)/experience) and the surrounding natural world. My work is about where we betray that connection and where we lean into it. My work is trying to put my thoughts into physical manifestations. There is a constant web of overlapping thoughts, feelings and emotions. It is impossible to focus on one thing long enough to complete it, almost like a big culmination of fragments intuitively placed. In a physical sense I work this way as well. I enjoy the process of using repetitive shapes or forms to create a greater being. The way that a bunch of passing thoughts create a life philosophy, or the way cells make up an organ. The idea of building blocks, or a cast of characters to pull from. It is about my mental strife,, a lack of consistency in feeling. I am creating a visual system to understand my own brain better. It naturally is chaotic. My brain and my body symbolize the earth, the universe. Tiny cells make up my bones and my flesh the same way the stars and galaxies collectively make up space. My work is about the inherent connection between oneself and absolutely everything around you. Inspired by quantum mechanics, and eastern philosophy. Explored through experiment, comparisons and intuitive building. My work is about relationships and how objects, people and the environment interact with each other. Parallels between the mental and the physical.
I believe at the moment I am trying to communicate that by simply living we are constantly engaging in a variety of systems at all times, between the natural, social and physical. We quite literally are a system. You inherently matter by existing. Your thoughts and words are building blocks to a greater collective knowledge. You are contributing at all times whether it's conscious or not. This is a very beautiful and profound thing but it requires intention and responsibility. As quickly as we can contribute to the system we can harm it as well. I hope to call people's attention to the ways they impact the environment around them, their communities, their relationships and their own overall mental state. How one is connected to the land and earth's natural cycles. These thoughts of course give way to topics like environmental issues, social justice, mental health awareness and queerness, gardening, spirituality.
I want people to see themselves in my work, in the strangest, most unexplainable parts. I want people to see the ugly and the bad in themselves and relish in it all. Welcoming the ugly and dirty parts. Seeing their shortcomings, but also the beauty in their smallest details. Seeing the profoundness of their voices. I want the most close minded people to walk away forced to grapple with what they just saw and why they felt they could relate to it. Our emotions are a system as well and each one has its own job. I want to make people squirm and come closer and examine the world around them in close detail and observation.
SFX makeup for me is a conduit for this sort of radical self reflection. Since moving to Los Angeles, I have been fortunate to have been working as a freekance SFX artist.The act of transforming others into creatures, animals and monsters connects them very physically with my art and my mind. I enjoy giving folks regardless of their gender or apparance, a chance to play with makeup and put on a persona. I have always used SFX and makeup as a form of self expression in my younger years which allowed me to experiment with my appearance, how far I could push it and what kind of reactions I got from the people around me. I feel like this was an early breaking of my own rules of my percieved gender. I felt more beautiful in gore or clown paint than I often did on a night out. Self transformation in such an extreme way very physically forces you to question beauty, and why we dont all paint ourselves blue every day. Life is so much more fun when you look insane. In my personal expression I feel this emerging now in the form of drag.
Recently I have found myself curating as well, working closely with each artist to push how they think about installation and the viewing experience. Often when working on larger scale event production I find myself in collaboration with musicians, movement artists and photographers, while showing works of painters, sculptors, animators and more. This has allowed me fluidity in how work is presented. Works extend into performance pieces as the night moves on and monsters crawl around you. Giving artists a place to show work and coexist with eachother is a huge priority for me, as I feel that learning from observing your peers in real time is one of the most valuable ways to learn. Platforming other artists and extending creative resources is an important part of my collective relationship to art. I feel that my work exists as web or a map. Without all the various bits and pieces of interactions and observation of others I would be nothing. This calls me to do eveything in my power to expose others to more points on their own map. Having the priveledge of attending a university, I have seen and felt what it means to have tools put into your hands. I want everyone to feel that.