Tanner Gilliland-Swetland: A Long Away

MFA Thesis Exhibition

June 6, 7, 13, 14; 1-4 p.m.
Reception: June 7, 6 p.m.
SME 142 Visual Arts Gallery, Structural & Materials Engineering Bldg., UC San Diego

Tanner Gilliland-Swetland’s MFA thesis exhibition titled A Long Away, is comprised of a series of sculptures all built from the salvaged cross-sections of a Mediterranean Cypress tree form his family’s backyard in Los Angeles. These works reference tools as both an entry-point for multi-sensory generative interactions and as a formal aesthetic rooted in craft, family heirlooms, and agrarianism. Hints of whimsy and absurdity in the sculpture’s designs mesh to challenge narratives of land use and notions of utilitarianism.