A Future That Never Came?

By: Christopher L. Richards

Household technological advances are generally welcomed and expected if not completely ignored by contemporary society, but a self-proclaimed ludite questions all in a broad but focused series of work. Shaun Edwards, a proud drop out of the Illinois Institute of Technology, a school founded by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, recalls being drawn more to art after finding the course work confining and cold. “I didn’t quite feel like becoming just another Miesling,” he says of his experience. “With art, you have a blank page, or canvas, with no answering to clients, zoning boards or city governments.”  For Shaun, art is about expression, no limitations required.

Ironic then that he pulls inspiration from a time when Mies Van Der Rohe held reign. Or perhaps it’s just a way of coping with an increasingly gadget driven world. Seeing the today’s technologies through the eyes of the past, Shaun’s paleofuturist paintings take on optimistic attitude with a tinge of warning. He currently has three ongoing series of works, each with their own thought provoking mid-twentieth century inspired titles: “Your Electric Servant,” “Technocephalic,” and “Micromedics.”

Robots vacuum living rooms, unnoticed by the occupants. They teach children how to ride bicycles, serve cocktails at parties, and even replace reference librarians. They are large, and ominous with heads shaped like the Zenith Radio Nurse of the late ‘30s. They appear to be taking care of us, fulfilling our needs and desires. But what happens when we become too comfortable with technology doing our jobs for us?

Bright yellow helmets adorn people’s heads as all in one personal technology, expressing the distance our portable devices place between us and strangers, our neighbors, friends, family and lovers. With cell phones, mp3 players, and portable game systems we are in a constant bombardment of media isolated from those around us.

In all of Shaun’s work, his Micromedic series appears to be his most positive view of technology. Nanobots swarm through the blood stream, cleaning our foreign particles and diseases, be it Dysentery or Influenza.

Shaun regularly shows in Cleveland States’ People’s Art Show. He has also shown at Bela Dubby in Lakewood, and during the Lakewood ArtWalk. Recently, he was part of the group show “Straight from the Crate” at Shoparooni in Collinwood and currently has several pieces available for sale there.

Every once in awhile though, he pauses from his obsession with robotics. This October Shaun displays work in Low Life’s “Halloween Spooktacular.”  Three paintings will adorn the walls of the gallery with works by many other local artists to celebrate the season. The opened on October 10th and will run through the 30th. Low Life is located in Collinwood at 16001 Waterloo Rd.