JOHN HYLTON'S  Sculpture

CURRENT SCULPTURE   FACTS

John Hylton’s recent sculpture reveals a conceptual blending of contemporary concerns and ancient archetypal sources. Drawing on his informal yet meaningful backgrounds in both archaeology and architecture (including excavating the early mounds of indigenous peoples of southern Ohio with the Dayton Museum of Natural History), his images attempt to bridge historical time with formal and spatial relationships. He is attracted by the sense of "timeless mystery" that attends the ruins and artifacts of early civilizations, as well as by the inherent sense of design and proportion that informs their remains. Utilitarian implements of hearth or husbandry, sacred relics for burial or belief systems all serve as inspirations for the creation of his sculpture.

Hylton’s work may have its initial stimulus from articles or books he reads, exhibitions he sees, landscape forms he encounters. Beginning with a sketch that may or may not evolve into a finished drawing, he then determines which media would best suit his mental image. Found and fabricated objects alike find their way into his constructions, and as he works, the sculpture evolves in response to his continuing conceptual absorption as well as to the demands of his chosen technology and media. That the final sculpture may have only slight resemblance to the initial stimulus or sketch is not of import to Hylton; what does matter is the reconciliation of intent with image, focus with form.

Hylton acknowledges work by such precursors such as David Nash, Martin Puryear, and Anish Kapoor as important resources for his development. Too, works in a sculptural tradition distinguished by artists as diverse as Nancy Graves, Michael Heizer, and Sam Hernandez (the latter for whom he worked as a studio assistant), have helped him to propel his vision. Bridging the past with contemporary concerns, Hylton constructs a new category of artifacts that may help him to transcend or resolve his conceptual issues of origin and purpose, use and time. Personalizing the totemic, he creates an idiosyncratic visual mythology that is revelatory of his own aesthetic quest.

Ó Jo Farb Hernandez

November, 1998