Above the old refrigerator (floor mat edging, 12.5 x 4 inches), 2022
Since 2015, I’ve made sculptures that roughly unpack the act of deterioration. From objects meant to support bodies or precious cargo to materials often ignored or improperly recycled, they tend to reflect and imply the cost of the built world around us—and the systems that keep it going, from shipping to storage to safety.
From styrofoam melted with acetone to rebonded fabric, I harvest these materials from the neighborhoods and homes in which I live. I then attempt to push these objects away from their “leftover” or “periphery” status, either staging them as readymades or transforming them into structures mid-decay. The names typically reference the object or space the material once protected or covered, though sometimes they reference a part of my past.
I find my sculptures help me discover new meaning in what many of us consider “mundane,” “ordinary,” or “obvious”—the box you trash once your set of jars are dropped off—which are the systems most pernicious to our health, climate, and neighbors. Nearly all processes on Earth are cyclical, for example, but a lot of human processes are illogically linear (i.e. the “end” as landfill, sidewalk, or museum collection). I use my practice as a way to bring these materials “back” into a cycle to consider how they could be presented, and represent, once again. And who knows—maybe one day we stop shipping objects from one continent to another. It could mean I’m ultimately making relics of the present for the future to figure out.
Portable humidifier, gift basket, pillow, rechargeable batteries (Text on cardboard, 16 x 17 inches), 2020-2023
Wine subscription, outdoor chair (styrofoam, acrylic, acetone, approx. 17 x 19 x 6 inches), 2023
Cushion filler (rebonded fabric,12 x 10.5 inches), 2023
Gas mask (border control tape, 10.25 x 13 inches), 2021
Living room (carpet samples, 6.25 x 20.25 inches), 2023
Rug (padding, 4 x 13 inches), 2023
Textbooks, glass jars (packaging paper, 59 x 59 inches), 2015
Above the old refrigerator (floor mat edging, 12.5 x 4 inches), 2022
Computer monitor, blinds (styrofoam, paper, approx. 25 x 40 inches), 2021
Startup soundproofing, carpet, dress, garden (felt, floor tape, garden fence, tulle, spray adhesive, spray paint, 70 x 40 in), 2021
Still afraid of water I can’t see the bottom of (spray paint, industrial glue, styrofoam, cardboard, gaff tape, 20 x 16), 2020