Ashton Bird’s artistic style is, in many ways, DIY. Philosophically, he’s observed art as a do-it-yourself kind of craft. This resourcefulness was certainly put to the test when he walked into the old apartment building in Railroad Square that has since been transformed into SOUP Experimental. Bird’s installation background gave him an eye to open the space up into a three-room gallery.

As founder and director of the gallery, Bird has always been interested in curating and making a space where students and other artists could gain valuable experience. He was also inspired by artist Gordon Matta-Clark in naming SOUP, an ode to the 1971 Manhattan restaurant, FOOD. The restaurant was a place where any artist, writer, musician, dancer, or chef, could come together and share in their art and a reasonably priced meal.

“The idea behind SOUP is to make up its own definition of a gallery and what a gallery can do,” says Bird. “I want it to be all encompassing.”

A South Dakota native, a younger Bird thought art only consisted of painting and drawing, both mediums in which he was proficient.

His early works took to more lighthearted subject matter — Pokémon and Zelda characters — until he found a new focus in ceramics while attending Minnesota State University. It was there that he met significant mentors, Todd Shanafelt, Mika Laidlaw, and Liz Miller. Taking a beginning hand-building course, Bird worked with clay for the first time. He says that the art program’s approach to ceramics allowed him to look at the medium in new ways, seeing how the clay reacts to the space around it versus simply manipulating it into shapes. It was through this exploration that Bird found his interests in sculpture and installation artwork.

“It’s transforming a space so you walk in and experience a different feeling or a moment,” explains Bird. “My installation artwork is about evoking an experience and forcing the participant into moving in a certain direction, thinking in a certain way, and then thinking in a different way once they reach an object. It activates or reactivates a site specific space where a participant has to walk in to experience the artwork.”

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