Our current exhibition, Bedtime Stories, gives 13 unique artists a chance to show their talented work. Future Tenant Associate Director Christine Nolan sat down with these artists to gain insight of their work. Today's post is focused on photographer, Aaron Blum. Aaron Blum is an award-winning photographer whose work has been exhibited in The Halpert Biennial, The Houston Center for Photography, the Santa Fe Center for Photography, and the Silver Eye Center for Photography. Blum's two photographs for Bedtime Stories are portraits of his grandparents from his Born and Raised series, a personal myth built on memories of Appalachian life in West Virginia where the artist grew up.
1. Could you give us a brief introduction to who you are and how you became an artist?
I am an eighth generation Appalachian from West Virginia, and I make work based around my home. I am constantly trying to find the answer to the question, What does it mean to be Appalachian? I guess I started making art work from an early age, but wasn’t super gung-ho about it. I looked up to my older sister. She is an artist and I really wanted to go to art school like her, and it all just kind of kept building momentum.
2. Can you talk about the concepts behind your pieces in Bedtime Stories?
Both the pieces in bedtime stories are from my series Born and Raised; which is a body of work about my understanding of West Virginia mixed with the ideas of the outside stereotypical thought that surrounds the region. I use my family as characters and their homes as sets.
3. What is your creative process?
I am more of a thinker than a doer. I spend a lot of time researching and reading and planning to make work, and then set everything up and control a lot of the scenarios to ensure success. I really put a ton of leg work in before ever really making a photograph. Sometimes I go to parts of Appalachia that I am unfamiliar with and make work on the fly, but that is usually more research than anything.
4. Do you admire any other artists?
Of course. I love a lot of Art especially photographers, painters and sculptors. Some examples being Taryn Simon, Jeff Wall, Philip Lorca DiCorcia, Doug Dubois, Alec Soth (photographers) all the Hudson Valley School Painters, Edward Hooper, Norman Rockwell (Painters) Richard Serra, James Tyrell, Paul Mcarthy (Sculptors)
5. Are you working on any new projects at the moment? And where can we follow your work?
Yes. Im working on a few projects actually, I am finishing up a body of work called “A Guide To Folk Taxonomy” which is a look at Appalachian folklore and linguistics that you can see on my website www.aaronblumphoto.com and Im working on my first 8x10 film project which is in its infancy. Im looking to get some of that work up on the website soon. It is a portrait project of people I know in Appalachia.
6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully still in Pittsburgh. My wife and I are expecting to be first time parents in October and I hope I can raise him to be a Penguins fan. Art wise… who knows? The art world is crazy, and I think you just have to keep making work and keep applying to things and see what works and what doesn’t.
Bedtime Stories is at Future Tenant until June 28.