Nathan Meltz

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake,

Birds and snakes and aeroplanes,

And Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

Part critique, part fascination, the art I create examines the infiltration of technology into every facet of our lives, from family and food to politics and war.  Nightmarish industrial creations are set against images of grand mechanical constructions, an off-kilter vision of technology.  In my visual vocabulary, the contemporary world of nanotechnology and genetic modification is retrofitted with analog mechanical parts. 

Exploring this automated world through printmaking, animation, and audio performances, I create narratives and relationships between mechanical humanoids and animals. These tales of love, violence, and circuit boards alert the viewer to the inevitable robot invasion, and prepare them to resist.  

“That's great, it starts with an earthquake, Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes. And Lenny Bruce is not afraid,” explores the end of the world as I know it. The last year has been marked globally by the pandemic, climate crisis, and a national reckoning with home-grown fascism. Personally, in the last year I underwent a series of invasive medical procedures culminating in doctors freezing and stopping my heart, and leaving my chest full of metal. The works in this show respond to the technologies that have played a role in these various conflicts and crisis, giving clues to what the world will look like next.

-Nathan Meltz