Pay Attention to Ian Mosely: the 25-year-old multifaceted artist forever exploring
Tell me about yourself? What do you do?
Hi, my name is Ian Mosely. I’m 25 years old from Savannah GA. I’m currently pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in Photography at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. I am an artist who takes photos, creates installations and builds sculptures. My work is usually an amalgamation of these mediums. Or, I choose one to base the work on.
Have you always taken photos?
I haven’t really always taken photos. I have been building and making things with my hands since I was a child. I really didn’t get into (or properly exposed) to photography as I see it until I was older, 16 or so. My mother was taking a photo class at the time, and my dance career was taking me places where there were professional photo companies so that bit of exposure definitely led me to it.
Why photography?
I chose photography because it was something I felt, no matter what I ended up choosing, I could apply my photography skills and knowledge to whatever it was. It has definitely helped me to be able to see things with a photographer’s eye for sculptures and installations. Positions, framing and perspective are all foundations of a photo in a sense. Which to me are three very important things for installations and sculptures as well.
How much gear do you have? Your favorite item you’ve collected?
I used to not have a lot of gear at all, but recently this year I have definitely stepped it up. My most favorite thing right now is a Lenovo Yoga A940 I got as my rendering PC, after using a late-2013 MacBook for eight years. I had to upgrade.
What inspires you?/Any projects you’re currently working on? Or anything you’re proud of, tell me about them.
I’m working on a good bit of stuff. I’m planning a fashion shoot with a colleague soon, getting around to a couple of submissions to galleries and my aesthetic has been going through a bit of a change, which is interesting. I have also gotten way more into projection mapping, and have been working on a little series of sculptures I plan on projecting on. About a year ago I built a giant white cube I projected on, that’s kind of my magnum opus for now, but I plan on changing that soon. Right now, I’m doing a whole thing about Brutalism, Preservation-ism and Pleomorphism. Which is, sort of, translating into this relational triangle among concrete, water and plants. I am trying to find what is in the middle of that triangle and make some work inspired by that.
What’s your creative process?
My creative process is extremely weird. But the rough around depends on how I am feeling. I will either need to bombard my brain with concepts, narratives and materials or really find some inspiration that moves me, not just a fleeting inspiration. From there, I get a rough list and begin to let the work lead itself. If I am more focused or more drained on a certain day, I go for the opposite. I clear my mind and really try and focus on the task at hand instead of new ideas. I read plenty of dense reference material to keep the brain moving, but without throwing myself off course from what’s in front of me. No matter what process it is — it almost always starts on a whiteboard, napkin, or sticky note.
Anything you’d like for the people to know?
There isn’t really too much I want the people to know right now about me. Right now, at least. I would much rather people build an idea of who I am to them through my art and then engage in conversation with me about it. My ideas of goals and missions are always changing. My artwork is a much more consistent variable than my own verbal claims about who I think I will be or what I will achieve by a certain time. So that conversation I would much rather have after creating more work. I create the work while the work creates me.
