sculpture
My sculptural work refers to the language of scientific study and display. It is both a sincere attempt to define truth and a hoax. I am interested in research in a Victorian sense; in the way intellectual pursuit and properness can obscure a dark and sinister, or even lascivious, intent. Through my work, I want to reconcile classifications, diagrams, and dissections with subjective topics like love, sex, gender, life and death.
Through distortion and uncommon materials, I fetishize this fake science. Scientific apparatus and museum style displays are absurdly skewed when I strip away that which makes them functional and quantifiable. The materials I am interested in lead a double life. Steel wool looks soft, but is actually itchy and painful. Latex appears visceral and moist, while to the touch it is smooth and squeaky. Found domestic objects associate an impeccably kept house with a hermetically sealed lab. From delicately stitched latex gloves to petri dishes full of Crisco, everything is just a little off. By combining scientific detachment and domestic sensibility, I create a contemporary take on the surrealist object.
painting
In old snapshots, there is a surreal quality that I seek to exploit. The gesture and expression of each character seems impeccably posed, yet each is also genuine. By dissecting and removing various elements in a calculated way, I am attempting to draw the universal emotions out of an objectively-captured moment. Inevitably, the seperated figures leave behind parts of themselves literally, the way touch or contact can linger in an emotional sense.