'The Pasture' is Hunter Potter's theatre of the absurd featuring a band of wooden misfits

Existing between the planes of art and design is Brooklyn-based artist Hunter Potter's latest creations, The Pasture. The recently concluded solo exhibition at the SHRINE gallery in New York (December 13, 2024 - January 25, 2025) brought together 21 sculptural designs that could not possibly be categorised within a single creative discipline. The Pasture demonstrated 'a band of outcasts and misfits who are blissfully unaware of their unique spirit and charms', as the press release states, and facilitated grounds for interaction among these 'good-natured wooden friends who have assembled to reminisce about long-lived lives as trees in the American North East'.

Born in 1990, Potter completed his Bachelor in Arts from the University of Vermont in 2013, eventually settling in Brooklyn, USA. After camping in an upstate New York rural lumber yard for months, Potter developed a kinship with the yard's owner, who lent him storm-fallen branches and logs. Potter assembled the 'motley crew' on-site by using a single piece of wood or by putting together several chainsaw-cut timber pieces without any nails and fasteners, shaping them with sanders and grinders. Potter translates human anatomy through various degrees of abstraction for the timber designs to evoke human likeliness while accentuating the natural grains of the respective timbers.

Taking cues from the human nose is the 63-inch tall No Body Nose, with a wide base and slender silhouette made from black locust wood and mahogany inlays. While the prominent feature of the cherry wood Nosey Stepper is its nose and cuboidal block for a head, the ambrosia maple wood Side Step comprises a friendly face and a sturdy base that resembles two legs. Jeff at the Jazz Club is a gentleman carved out of a single piece of walnut, accentuated by red padauk inlays shaped like a bowtie. Made of three major components—the stool-like base, the post and the ring—from fir, black locust and red oak wood, the Dead Ringer stands tall at 74 inches. One can draw parallels between the piece and a floor lamp from its silhouette—as the post becomes narrower around the wooden torus, reminiscent of a light source emitting a glow—leaning towards the realm of furniture design.

Some works whittled from wood exhibit a monolithic quality and are crafted from a single piece of walnut and maple wood as evinced in Thighs, Lead with your Leg, Small Stargazer, Like A Stone and Spun Out, Cracked Up. Meanwhile, Slenderman, Three Piece, The Greeter and John Doe are assemblages of various wood pieces that focus on the human figure and gestures, evoking an absurd sense of familiarity. While creations such as Smiles All Around, Ringer and Red Handed mimic distinct parts of the human body, I'm Looking Through You, Airhead and Small Airhead encourage one to look beyond, rather, within the body to find new perspectives. The Slumped piece stands out from the rest of the series with its form oddly familiar to a miniature chair design, albeit an extremely uncomfortable one.

Embodying the deep, personal connection between the creator and his creations, The Pasture presented wooden wanderers who, in their individuality and absurdity, belong nowhere. Perhaps, the artist sought to imbue the wood sculptures with a sense of irrational charm alongside feelings of alienation. Repurposing the fallen pieces of wood to create creatures with a strong sense of identity, Potter underlines the importance of things that are considered waste in society and finds meaning in them.