Brian Fleetwood:
Consilience

form & concept | March 2020

What began as a solo exhibition for Brian Fleetwood soon transformed into the ambitious group show titled Consilience. As Fleetwood's cross-disciplinary, highly collaborative philosophy guided the curatorial process, gallery director and co-curator Jordan Eddy saw an opportunity to anchor the near and far-flung panoply of the artist's influences. "In our early conversations about the show, it became clear that a traditional solo exhibition couldn't hold what Brian was trying to say," Eddy says. "His work, and his community, has become a crossroads for this expansive, trans-disciplinary story."

Flanked on one side by his mentors, and on the other by recent students under the artist’s guidance at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Fleetwood presents an amoebic representation of significant mile markers on his creative journey. From large-scale, mixed media installation to traditional fine metalsmithing, the guest artists on view encircle and inform Fleetwood’s latest work.

Fleetwood’s plant-like installation, made primarily of industrial materials such as rubber, foam and resin, is adorned with 3D-printed brooches any visitor can pluck for themselves. The brooches mirror the life of plant spores, and also symbolize the dissemination of cultural ideas and artistic knowledge.

“I’m on the autism spectrum, so there’s always been a slight disconnect between my mind and body. Jewelry for me is one of the most fundamentally human art forms, and it’s become a way for me to understand that connection. Paying attention to the preciousness of an object and how it interfaces with the body allows us to look at forms in new and innovative ways. Making that effort to connect is everything.”

Important to Consilience is the Muscogee (Creek) artist’s inclusion of multiple Indigenous artists who highlight jewelry’s expansive and amorphous definition. He says, “There are so many Indigenous practices that the contemporary art world would not necessarily consider jewelry, but those artists do. I’m interested in communicating culture in all its underexplored ways.”

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