ARTIST STATEMENT

Mercury Swift is an observer. They naturally exist in a contemplative state. They tend to identify patterns in the external and internal world. Through meditative pondering they have found a rhythm permeating all they see and feel. This rhythm drives Swift to create intimate, transcendental objects that play with wearers’ bodies on multiple levels.

Swift is interested in visualizing relationships between self and other, self and body, self and mind, human and nature, feminine and masculine, as well as ancient and contemporary. They speak in a visual language constructed in observation of and collaboration with natural rhythm. By playing with gravity, negative space, transparency and color, Mercury Swift tells narratives of their experiences and the wisdom they have accrued through a life of observation and contemplation. Many of these center around self-actualization, shedding of the old, and the isolation that is often a byproduct of growth. Swift creates in hopes of connection -- to build a stronger relationship with self and to feed the souls of those who may feel similarly estranged through the role of observer.