Brock DeBoer’s practice works something like cultural archiving. He takes motifs and traditional processes and applies them to sculptures of iconic objects. By casting these objects as porcelain sculptures, Brock elevates them and makes them permanent. Instead of simply going out of fashion, getting thrown away or degrading, these objects become symbols of culture and nostalgia. Brock’s work makes us double take, and we end up feeling pretty good about it.

There is a tension in Brock’s work. He depicts objects that are emblems of specific moments in time, built into our cultural histories, and makes them into permanent sculptural forms. Trainers are nostalgic objects, they are collectable, reminders of specific moments in time - specific releases, particular eras. Instead of moving into decay, Brock’s trainers are built to last.

Brock grew up in South Dakota, and was obsessed with skateboarding. So much so that he neglected school and had to take extra make-up classes in his freshman year of high school. One of those classes was ceramics and he fell in love with it. “Ceramic’s completely turned it around for me and I really got into it. My high school art teacher really saw that passion in me” 

He went on to study ceramics formally, then worked across ceramics suppliers, and studios. He was called on to build kilns for specific artists. Ultimately his own art practice won out. studio is in Joshua tree, about a mile and a half from the national park. It feels like a fitting place to develop a practice that sits somewhere between the past and present. Brock says the move has expanded his practice considerably - he has room to build out proper studio space and experiment with metal work, stone work and glass work alongside porcelain. Brock says of himself, "I'm just enamoured with learning and finding out how things work."

Learning is at the centre of Brock’s practice. “There is something about using your hands to translate that thing that’s in your brain to real life”. For Brock, it really is all about craftsmanship. He needs to be able to experiment and learn through doing. It’s that high precision, process and traditional techniques that Brock is seeking in all of his work and Brock is clear about which part of his practice he loves the most; “I’m half addicted to making the thing”.

Waking at 4:45am, Brock works out of his garage studio in the desert. The first half of the day is fairly regimented. He will start by casting first if that's on the agenda. From the way Brock talks about his practice you just know he can’t wait to get back to it.

Brock talks to us about a moment that shaped how he understood his practice. A woman bought one of his sculptures after seeing it in person, a porcelain cooler. It was the exact model that her husband’s dad had owned. When her husband arrived to see it he was moved to tears. The cooler that his dad had when he was a child was lost to time, but here was a perfect replica in sculptural form.

It was a reminder to Brock that while these objects are universally recognisable, everyone carries their own private and specific memories of them. A single familiar object holds a thousand different personal histories.

Diverse histories are key to Brock's work, its evident in his Air Force 1 trainer - a shoe we all know so well.

The delft patterning across Brock’s work adds another layer to his practice. Delft pottery was a technique developed in the Netherlands in the 1500s as a way to mimic luxury Chinese porcelain for a broader mass market audience in the 1600s. This was a cultural fusion born out of imitation and desire. Brock's use of the delft patterning applies that same language to his work, and stacks one history of aspiration directly onto another. Brock’s sculptures carry a cultural significance of their own and pairing with porcelain and delft patterning is an ode to craftsmanship and skill sharing and history. You can see this beautiful work in his Tulip Spiegel Panel Jordan, Floral Vine Junior Jordan 1 and Botanisch Collapsed Basketball

On the topic of being an artist, Brock says it’s important to see how you've evolved and changed. On advice to those starting out, Brock says “There’s nothing to it but to do it, then it’s done. Get your ass moving”.