Statement for Sculptural Work

What happens when something exists on the verge of collapse? What follows such a space? Is it idle? Another state before a rebuilding, before a new making begins and new meaning is created? What is the consequence of a collapse of meaning, of an object, a person? Within the fragility of transitions exists an infinity of possibilities – of what was, what is and what could be. There is an endless spectrum of options in such moments, but surrounding those options are chance, uncertainty, risk and failure, facing the unknown. I am drawn to the place where the unknown is faced knowingly, when the possibility of failure is kept present through the possibility of an unmaking, a dismantling, a collapse, to the space in-between what something was and what it will be. The objects I create exist in this transitory space and are intended to evoke feelings of consequential occurrence, the understanding of a transitional state.

Through dismantling we make sense, give meaning, understand the purpose and function of that which is taken apart. Dismantling is a means of dealing with that which seems inextricable. I feel an affinity with the process of making Babette Martini describes in her article, “The Body Undone: Fragmentation in Process,” in which she writes, “The principle of making is closely linked to unmaking…one could say that the principle of making is essentially based on an ongoing act of modulation and the act of wounding.” Such a process allows for a call and response type of communication with one’s self, where equal recognition is given to both intuition and conscious reckoning, maintaining a level of uncertainty and risk with the work, yet approaching it knowingly.

As reconfiguring words on a page can convey new meaning and depth to an idea, working with different materials constitutes a vocabulary, a visual language with which I can create meaning that will evoke visceral resonances. The primary materials I work with – clay, resin and wax, when placed with one another are intended to bring into question the stability and meaning of the object through an examination of their inherent physical qualities – whether they are mutable, transient or permanent. A paper-thin clay object, architectural in form yet vulnerable to the slightest movement or breath, placed next to a wax object suggestive of the body or a lair yet ambiguous enough to suspend specification is intended to suggest a sense of fragility, brevity and transience.
An investigation in the relationships of the materials is an often fraught and obligatory search for meaning and sense, like the search for just the right words that will make a lover stay, an apology accepted, enable forgiveness or acceptance. The materials become words, the objects stories told in attempts of connection through the shared experience of our own fragility. Perhaps there is no end to such a search, no definitively convincing words, no final finished object. But through the process of looking possibility stays present.

The forms I make speak to the spaces of the body as well as the physical spaces external to our bodies. Both concepts and functions of the body and architecture are questioned and jeopardized due to their collapsing forms. When placed next to one another the meaning shifts between the body as architecture and the building as the body, challenging the concepts of strength and function of the two while provoking thoughts of transition and inevitability.

Exploring the broader metaphorical meanings of a material such as dried flowers or thread often used with the clay, resin or wax forms opens a deeper connection to the emotional significance of our associations and relationships with them. Such acts as remembrance and preservation in drying flowers, or mending with thread, are inevitable desires sought for comfort and resolution. They are also a consequence of time. The objects I create with this desire are a means of reconciliation with inevitabilities, uncertainties, and the unknown.