An exploration into setting and collaborator becoming elements for the video itself along with the themes of animal as canvas and co-performer. Further expanding on what my “materials” can be in a video, event and performance.
Blanketing is an interactive installation of over 2000 unfired clay pieces on a floor in an interlocking grid system. Viewers were invited to come and navigate the space that the installation occupied. This caused a simultaneous action of trying to understand the language written on the works and breaking down the work. The piece was then reclaimed for future experiments.
Reification is a performance video projected on a hanging sheet with of a phonetic spelling of a gasp for air from two views. This is born out of the question, “Do you want to talk about the subject or do you want to talk about the topic?” And the struggle to communicate anything at all.
The performance piece “Walking on Eggshells” began as my attempt to illustrate the experiences that accompany one's entrance into a new environment.Transforming my response to this new home into an aesthetic object, I have attempted to achieve an appropriate balance between feelings of uncertainty, mystery, and doubt and those of eager anticipation.
As I hang ceramic eggs on the distant wall, thin wisps of red paint form a red-scale line that spreads across the screen. The line takes the shape of an electrocardiograph, the electronic signal that sketches one's heartbeat. On the floor rests a grid of unfired clay works, vessels of weakness to be tested by my weight. The grid that unites these pieces maps my movement through a guarded place in space and time. I understand that I am now entering a unique and fleeting period in my life, and I do not intend to forsake this gift. I therefore struggle to find my footing, for fear of dropping the work I am carrying.
Monument is an installation of the process of decay constructed outside. Here, the gradation of my history with material is exposed and vulnerable to the elements. Inspired by the layers of the earth, monuments that survive outside for years, stages of life and the loss of control, Monument is comprised of separate stages of “bricks” that compartmentalize my process and make up a greater final composition in an archaic pyramid-like structure, human size in scale. The spontaneity of surrendering to nature and lifespan of an artwork is explored along with its value over time. (At what point does its value diminish?) In this piece I am seeking to explore how I use fired clay to create work and how it exists outside of the safety of the institution walls.