John Salvest

John Salvest

John
Salvest

b. 1955       STUDIO IN JONESBORO, AR

Southern Region of USA
From afar, John Salvest’s wall-bound sculpture Forever appears to be a single unit, its title spelled out in tall red letters against a speckled field of white. A step closer reveals the material: thousands of secondhand romance novels meticulously arranged with their spines facing toward you. Come even closer, and the individual titles emerge: A Perfect Marriage, The Confirmed Bachelor, Breathless Temptation. Though each title is different, the impression of each unit remains the same—all of the novels are of similar size, thickness, and format. Their arrangement asks you to consider the connection between the material and the overall form of the work: how does the concept of “forever” relate to these individual units? Salvest’s method—scavenging found objects and reconfiguring them into sculptural compositions—begins out in the world. The artist scours junk stores, antique shops, and yard sales to accumulate his materials. He brings a wide range of objects into his studio, including expired pills, library stamps, and shipping crates, transforming them through accumulation and combination.

I work a lot with found objects in large quantities. And I really like the process of figuring things out. Each project’s a new challenge. So, how do I get it to do what I want it to do? It’s kind of fun to problem-solve.

John Salvest