John Salvest

Breaking, 2017
site-specific installation with 3 LCD televisions live-streaming broadcast news, Everlast Hydrostrike punching bag, steel chain

(included in the exhibition Tensile Strength, SITE Gallery Houston at the Silos at Sawyer Yards, Houston, TX, 21 October-2 December 2017)

Tensile strength is defined as the resistance of a material or structure to breaking under stress. No matter your political persuasion, these days you are likely asking yourself: "What is the tensile strength of a nation?" Centered and gently swaying within the babel of Silo D-11, an Everlast Hydrostrike heavy bag teases your unvented frustration. Agitated by the cacophony of competing voices and views, you might want to punch the dark reflective surface as it further compounds the surrounding onslaught. Or you may, instead, choose to passively ponder a shape that calls to mind a bomb or a wrecking ball or, filled as it is with water, a giant black teardrop. Nothing lasts forever.

Too much importance has been given to the retinal, 2017
Artist's Billboard Project, 2017
Highway 71B, Springdale, AR
10 x 30 feet

By placing the Marcel Duchamp quotation "Too much importance has been given to the retinal" in Braille on a public billboard, Salvest pays tribute to one of his artistic influences while absurdly forgoing most, if not all, of the standards and expectations of commercial advertising. 

This project is dedicated to my dear friend John DeLuca, who helped me to see better.

Disappearing Ink, 2014

An exhibition of printed ephemera recording our stories, history and cultural memory. Print media is disappearing and being replaced by ever mutating digital media.

For more than 200 years news media have documented our histories. How will we capture our memories in 2050?

Not everyone
(can carry the weight of the world), 2012

During the fiftieth anniversary of James Meredith's historic enrollment at Ole Miss, John Salvest and Les Christensen collaborated on a sound installation referencing one man's courage, determination, and perseverance against impossible odds.

New Cornucopia and the Big IOU, 2011

IOU/USA was a temporary public art project addressing U.S. economic crisis located in city park adjacent to Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

A companion installation was presented simultaneously in the gallery of Grand Arts.