Nate Ricciuto

2020 - The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH

Sitting Flesh is translated from a German word that means both the actual flesh that one sits on, as well as one’s ability to remain seated and endure lengthy, boring, and tedious tasks. The positive expression of this quality often has to do with work, and refers to a person being productive, efficient, and patient. In another sense, someone having sitting flesh can mean they are complacent, lazy, or reluctant to take action. I came upon the phrase while reading about J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, who was regarded as a brilliant physicist but also known for jumping ahead to the next problem before completing the task at hand. This grouping of objects, images, and installations attempts to negotiate the tensions between physical bodies and mental states, while seeking ways to experience restlessness as a kind of useful, but vexing contradiction.

Through exploring the intersection of alternative ideas, disruptive tactics, and homespun ingenuity, these works hope to encounter the unknown and the absurd within familiar spaces, systems and objects. This type of restlessness abandons conventional ideas of work and productivity, and regards technology as a site for imagining new possibilities.