I’ll Die High explores themes of physicality, mechanics, and humor in the face of certain death. Madden’s parents are battling life-threatening diseases: cancer and Alzheimer’s. Madden makes use of a variety of media as he takes us through his experience of slowly losing the parents he knew, either through the physical deterioration of the body, or of the slow breakdown of a mind, and makes us acutely aware of the vulnerability and fleeting nature of life and consciousness. He uses art to make sense of the past and a future, acutely aware of the moment before him. Treating the body as a machine that inevitably breaks down and dies, Madden copes with his parents’ conditions by creating playful and touching kinetic and interactive sculptures that awaken with the audience’s participation. Push, pull, and crank each piece to make it come to life in an examination of the bodily changes that Madden sees in his parents.

Nick Madden is an artist and art teacher from Atlanta. He is a recent Hambidge Fellow and a resident of The Creatives Project. Nick has shown work in galleries across the city. I’ll Die High was first shown at Eyedrum in Atlanta in February of 2015. Learn more about Nick Madden here:

http://nickmaddenart.com/

http://instagram.com/nickmaddenart

On view until June 21st, 2015