Research & Practice

My art practice investigates the inseparable relationship between cognitive and material experience as it is lived in and through the body. From this perspective, I explore themes of sensuality, beauty, longing, and the abject through ritual acts in performance and the generation of “empathetic” objects. I encourage a sacred respect for the material earth and its inhabitants challenging colonial histories, mechanized thought, and Western epistemological precepts. Turning to embodied phenomenology and Indigenous practices that reflect our interdependence with the material earth, I re-contextualize objects, materials, and actions to suggest alternative systems of logic, a way of future dreaming to create new narratives of possibility.

I have an affinity for materials, and in my work, I highlight their tactile and sensual qualities to encourage an embodied response and connection with the work. My materials, objects, installations, and performances are all specific to place, a location; they directly reference the land and its inhabitants. This contextualizes the work, indebting it to the land. To reimagine and present an empathetic world through my practice, I use synthetics, clay, dirt, sand, glass, and digital materials to create hybrid forms that are often difficult to situate or categorize, intentionally resisting Western constructs and mechanized ways of thinking.

At the core of my practice is an intentional pursuit of the substantive and experiential aspects of what we encounter, offering a phenomenological examination of the relationship between bodies, materials, objects, and things. It is an attempt to develop whole-bodied awareness through investing in contemplative and somatic practices, honoring Indigenous teaching, and respecting the sacred material earth. Effective action rarely occurs alone, and my practice is invested in community, collaboration, and making space for actively, consciously, and wholeheartedly engaging with others and the natural world.

Bio

Moses lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a professor of sculpture and intermedia at the University of Utah. Moses received a BFA from Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville, TN, and an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

He has exhibited and performed throughout the United States and Europe, including Apexart – New York, SeelenArt Galerie, Munich, The Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Das KloHäuschen Art Center, Der Kulturanker Magdeburg, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Utah Museum of Fine Art, Zeihersmith Pop-up Gallery, and David B Smith Gallery. Moses has collaborated with The Nashville Ballet and Alias Chamber Ensemble, and with the residents of Unit 2 (the Death Row unit) at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, TN on a project with multiple exhibitions spanning several years.