Garrett Bradley - portrait

Garrett Bradley

Philip Guston Rome Prize
September 9, 2019–April 3, 2020
Profession
Artist, New Orleans
Project title
Public Symbols and Singular Identities
Project description

My proposal for the American Academy of Rome looks at the cities talking sculptures—a series of historical objects which represent both singular mythologies and contradictory, public discourse. I am interested in these sculptures as icons, or objects in juxtaposition to the Confederate-era statues recently removed in my current residence of New Orleans, Louisiana, and which have left behind, now vacant spaces throughout the city. My project begins with a series of questions aimed at the plausibility of creating singular images and objects that can encompass multiple narratives. How do we understand the role or effectiveness of iconography as a successful embodiment of contradictions, one which embraces a diverse set of mythologies and representations? I am interested in Roman sculpture and its physicality within urban space, as a means of proposing new objects which may be considered or adapted within the widely conservative, American South.