Molly Morin
Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Arts
Molly Morin is an artist working in sculpture and digital media. Morin has given invited lectures at the Center for Research Computing at the University of Notre Dame; The Society for Science, Literature and the Arts; and the National Academy of Science. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at The Collaboratory at UC Santa Barbara, Wittenberg University, Lamar University, the University of Dallas, and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. She was a 2020 Utah Visual Arts Fellow, and her work is included in the state’s Alice Merrill Horne collection.
Morin’s work teases out long held cultural assumptions influenced by Enlightenment logics that we accept as true, neutral, and necessary, and explores ways in which recent advances in computation can amplify and extend power imbalances already present in social, political, and art-world systems. Her sculptures and drawings are often poetic physical embodiments of data sets and algorithms in diverse media. Her practice includes fabric manipulation, felting, machine knitting, machine-cut plastic, machine drawing, generative drawing, performative drawing, projection, animation, data visualization, and physical computing in which interactions between media are experimental and their boundaries are constantly shifting. Her forthcoming work investigates fast-fashion supply chains and reclaims material from mass-produced clothing to make sprawling sculptural objects that highlight our indebtedness to unjust systems of production.
Recent and Upcoming Courses
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Art making helps us imagine paths forward in the face of overwhelming present challenges. In this course students will be introduced to a range of sculpture techniques while studying artists and writers who are dreaming of more just, liberatory, and sustainable futures. With space to address their own identities areas of interest, students will make sculptures as speculative objects for future living. Students will learn techniques for wood fabrication, soft sculpture and mixed media through both small assignments and larger projects. They will practice presenting and discussing work in small groups and class critique. This is a hands-on, participatory course
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In this course we will consider found materials for their metaphorical value and their practical affordances. Students will develop a material research practice to help them manipulate, shape and join materials effectively. At the same time, they will reflect on, study and leverage the affective, cultural, and phenomenelogical content that found and re-used materials carry. This course will include exercises for touching, prodding, speculating and experimenting with materials and support for students to consider their material environments and develop their own expressive material languages. This is a hands-on, participatory course