Biography
My work considers industrial and labor histories and their effect on our social relationship with land. Through sculpture, I work with histories of industrialism, labor, poverty, toxicity, and gender. I confront rigid structures in these topics by adding a suggested plasticity to the forms. Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of plasticity inspires me. He proposed that in the era of rubber house animation, animators' expression of formlessness was an escape from the hyper-mechanization of industrialism. Figures become squashed, stretched, and transformed. Through this process, these objects become disarmed or exposed to their deeper meanings. Additionally, my research is focused on how community-making and public dissemination can inform. I think about how grassroots programs can create space for underrepresented stories in labor histories. The act of installing in the public can continually enrich these groups. The shared processes subvert and expose these harmful legacies. I am Influenced by notions of the carnivalesque that uses humor and absurdity to expose embedded power structures. In performance, the carnivalesque employs the grotesque to magnify structures of power. Moreover, these folk tradition and rituals is a form of release that intends to liberate the participants. I seek to bring these thoughts into object-making. Materials lead my intention with these themes. How does the story inform the material? I think about wood for example. It is luxurious; however, it is also needed for the heating of homes. It is utilized for working-class tools and revered for sculptures of spiritual worship. Bronze and iron are both tied to monuments and enduring structures. Politics and class are enmeshed in labor histories with these material processes. My material research seeks to inform our dependence to connote cultural feelings. I seek to exploit that dependence to subvert or challenge structures of permanence. Lastly, I think about rest and healing of the body. Rest can be a form of resistance. It created a place to authentically reflect on our place in these dense systems Furthermore, empowering a thoughtful relationship with land. Fluid to the current of animacy.