Right This Way
right this way
2020
welded cold-rolled steel
26 x 19 x 0.25 inches
right this way represents a host or greeter beckoning you through an entranceway. It depicts a moment where you, a consumer of services, give over to being catered to as a paid experience. Prior to this moment, you may have had some agency in choosing the establishment. But soon after, you enter a societally defined relationship, an unquestioning agreement, expectation, and tradition.
served with a silver platter
2020
welded cold-rolled steel
26 x 15 x 0.50 inches
served on a silver platter addresses the harm that capitalism causes to the labor population. Capitalism disregards the physical, mental, and environmental health of people in favor of further profit for the already wealthy.
Morgan Kelly grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, tinkering with nuts and bolts to make small figurines. She obtained a degree in Biology, then returned home and took a welding class. This class launched her into her art career, which has culminated in making the leap to start her own art production in 2020.
Kelly’s work takes plain cold-rolled steel rods and forms them into textured, primitive, aesthetic images. The images are first found through drawn lines, not starting with a strong plan or intention, but rather through drawing lines and shapes until something interesting is seen or made. Kelly repeats this process until the final image is found, iterations of erasing lines and refocusing on the point of interest. The metalwork that has been cut, bent, and welded varies from the found image. Kelly welcomes the novel variances in character that appear in the metal—sometimes better than the drawing, sometimes not. Welding itself can be a grimy, laborious, hazardous process, but something about watching metal melt and transform before your eyes is endlessly fascinating.
Kelly’s work ultimately presents metal in a form that does not match its intended function. The ability to recognize and seek the re-imagination of identity is beautiful.