Michael Salter

Every city and town has a street, never downtown, lined with strip malls, fast food, and discount stores. Here, I am inspired. It is the most prolific evidence of our current culture. As an obsessive observer I am fascinated, repulsed and hypnotized by the tidal wave of imagery that our visual culture crashes down upon us everyday. I challenge this onslaught and examine it. I want to sort out the cacophony of visual noise and rethink meaning, motive, perception and narrative. In the middle of this infinitely chaotic flow of information, I have a nagging desire, the desire for truth and beauty. Images, moments, situations, spaces, and environments can be so coldly anonymous and at the same time so loaded with meaning. The closer I look the stranger it all becomes. Nothing is as it seems. In a world where mind numbing volumes of stimuli assault my consciousness and elevate my anxiety, I seek peace and clarity. My work is an attempt to slow down, sort out, and focus information. The seemingly simple, runs away from me so fast, and leaves a cloud of dust so thick, I have to stop and wipe my eyes.