The Rhythm of the Hill Annex Mine
Aaron Squadroni, Metalpoint Visual Artist
EXHIBIT January 10 – April 25, 2025
RECEPTION January 10, 5 to 7pm, Artist Talk at 6
ARTIST BIO
I am an architect and artist living in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
I graduated from the University of Minnesota, Masters of Architecture program and hold degrees in Studio Art and Philosophy from St. Olaf College.
The first house I owned was built on top of an old mine dump at the western end of the Mesabi Iron Range. I now spend my days exploring the mines of the region and creating art about the landscapes I encounter. I use materials from the mines to craft drawings and construct public art that focuses on the local mining communities and tensions I see in the industrial landscape.
My drawings combine the technique of metalpoint with found materials from mines such as overburden rock, tailings, and taconite pellets.
Focusing on themes of nature, industry and memory, I create drawings that explore the visible and unseen tensions in the mining landscape.
SHOW STATEMENT
“This artwork is based on a series of photographs I took while visiting the Hill Annex Mine State Park in Calumet, Minnesota.
“As I walked past piles of rock and layers of earth, I considered the passage of time and the rhythms of the landscape: of dynamite and removal, of water and sediment, of grasses and underbrush, of birches and pines, of birds and nests, of people and land.
“In this series I am using a steel brush to create my drawings. And in these drawings are my reflections on the old mine and its rhythms of passing away and beginning again.”
-Aaron Squadroni
ARTIST STATEMENT
My past work focused on mines and was driven by material experimentation. In these artworks I used found mine rock like chalk to make marks on paper, mine tailings to stain or paint paper, and metal wire along with metal brushes to further draw on paper. Through the process of freely experimenting with these mining materials, I began to understand the effects I could achieve and the possibilities for using the materials in an expressive way.
My current work is, in part, the process of refining one or two of these modes of expression that I found most compelling from my previous material experiments. As well as the search to pair this expressive language with more personal aspects of my encounters with the mine pits I live by.
I focus on public art in addition to my two-dimensional drawing. Most of my public art is made of metal, wood, rock, or some combination of those materials. As a way to connect my public art and my drawing explorations I decided to make trips into the iron mines of the area and think of them as earthwork size sculptures. My intention was to capture the sculptural form and texture of the mines in my drawings while also letting the experience of being in and moving through the mines influence my work.
I make art to know and better understand the ideas I am wrestling with. In this case I am drawing as a way of working through my relationship to the Mesabi Iron Range and the mining culture that it embodies. I moved to the Iron Range about 12 years ago and now consider myself to be a permanent resident while still an outsider.
I hope that my new drawings will speak to the beauty and contradictions of living on the Iron Range in a way that is specific to my time here.
I would like the viewers to experience the layers of the Iron Range through the lens of my memories and impressions. To achieve this I want to push myself to create work that is more personal, that injects my perspective more overtly into my drawings.
Aaron Squadroni is a fiscal year 2024 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.