Peter McFarlane reworks circuit boards and turns these mixed media sculptures into fossils. The artist focuses on transforming trash into fine art, believing that waste is just “a lack of imagination.” His beautiful fossil pieces look as if they were unearthed from prehistoric times, but are really a reinterpretation of the quick turnover of developing technology.
He was inspired to make art out of circuit boards after working as a computer consultant and observing first hand the speed with which computers became obsolete and were discarded. Using wires, pieces of metal sheeting and solder, McFarlane creates representations of prehistoric creatures. Lizards and tiny dinosaurs, plumes of feathers, and herringboned fish skeletons are embedded in the glittering green circuit boards, as if buried for centuries.
“The circuit board sculptures were a logical outgrowth of the more two-dimensional landscapes, using nature as a model and creating delicate objects out of these obsolete, but formerly cutting-edge technologies.”
“To me, waste is just lack of imagination. This belief carries beyond the boundaries of my art production and permeates most aspects of my life. Most of my home and studio, and much of everything in them, is recycled. I’ve always had an epic imagination along with a driving desire to make things. Thus, used objects have pared my options down to a workable, manageable level.”
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