Zack Bent is artist and educator based in Seattle, WA. Trained in architecture and photography, his work tends to ponder communal spatial experiences while attempting to come down to earth. His creative projects live as sculptures, videos, photographs, sound works, and home cooked meals. He has been awarded grants from Artist Trust, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and Jack Straw Cultural Center to create immersive art exhibitions.
The Shelter Sculpture was Cannonball’s call for a large-scale public sculpture designed with the secondary function of providing shelter for one person. It also welcomes the conversation around the role of art in public space, suggesting that there can be function in addition to aesthetic purpose. Seattle-based artist Zack Bent introduces the first shelter sculpture, Reliquary, to Cannonball Arts.
Over the years, Zack Bent’s practice has bounced between the disciplines of photography, video, sculpture and installation. Throughout his various projects, sculptural forms that imply shelter and enclosure have been ever present, though rarely functional. In Reliquary, a viewer first encounters a weighty mass- angular and organic- sitting quietly in the space. It is deeply grounded yet tilting and leaning, held up by its own substance. The surface is covered in old cedar, both new and weathered, bearing an unknown history. Through further investigation, an entry can be discovered that invites viewers to wander up a soft, pink-hued ramp into its ribbed interior. Inside one finds potential spots to sit, recline or study with alcoves of illumination. Here one might sense echoes of home, but this shelter is more like a rest stop, holding the possibility for respite, reflection and interaction.