Artist Statement
Using theories of otherness and queerness, as well as surrealist ideology through an anarchist lens, Michael Anderson dreams of a world liberated.
Michael is always producing, often in ways that are not seen as productive. By qualifying the simple but arduous work of existence and non-existence (i.e. dreaming), he revels in the act of survival. Through intersecting 2D (writing, painting, drawing), 3D (fiber art, sculpture, installation), and 4D forms (video art, performance) Michael’s work envisions a new way of thinking that values non-linear time structures, imagination, and togetherness which actively work to counter white supremacist capitalist patriarchal culture by recentering space to hold abundance for marginalized communities. Michael’s work is a scream, one that reverberates in a space only tangible to some. He aims to spark visions of new worlds through the creation of spaces that foster our inner child with rest, play, education, and imagination. Through connecting with the mysterious, opaque, and imperceptible he hopes to spark a surrealist encounter that causes an automatic release all at once psychic, imaginative, moral, erotic, intellectual, emotional, and creative. In his work, Becoming, Michael strips back the intimate scene of looking back into a bathroom mirror and questions the multitude of identities within oneself. By refusing closure and depicting coexisting selves, the focus rests on the state of becoming rather than being. In doing so, Michael critiques fixed notions of identity and honors the process of identities in motion.
About Michael Anderson
Michael Anderson is a maker, researcher, curator, and performer. After becoming a part of the Teen Art Council at the Tacoma Art Museum when he was 15, Michael co-founded Teens In Tacoma, a youth-led organization that highlighted local teen artists through exhibitions, interviews, and community events. Michael’s passion is to uplift the voices of marginalized youth and build community through artmaking and the celebration of diversity. In 2019, he was invited to guest curate a teen art show spotlighting marginalized artists for Yəhaw̓, a Seattle-based Indigenous art collective, and he was a selected panel member for the City of Seattle where he helped to diversify the city’s public art collection by selecting a million dollars’ worth of artwork. Working with museum educators, city art coordinators, gallerists, grass root organizations, and passionate artists Michael has been able to find his community of people working to build better futures. Currently he is pursuing his BFA with emphasis in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a Filipino-American artist, he often investigates themes of hybrid identities, migration, (de)colonization, and the pursuit of liberation. Michael wants to build space for us to gather, laugh, mourn, learn, and heal.
