Artist statement
My current work explores the nature of repair and other therapeutic actions; more specifically how such actions have consequences both intended and unintended. Using a variety of manually driven processes the work hovers between two dimensional abstraction and physical representation. Each piece goes through the separate stages of construction, destruction and reparation. The resultant repair process can become so physically invasive and disruptive that the viewer may feel a mixture of empathy, unease, or even futility for the actions taken.
The Erosion Series utilizes sandpaper which is a one use item that when worn becomes useless. The series is inspired by a Japanese form of ceramic repair where broken objects are repaired using a natural resin and the cracks accentuated by a dusting of gold, thus making the broken objects more valuable and aesthetically pleasing than the original. In the Erosion Series I restore used and ripped pieces of sandpaper by patching the torn areas with 24k gold leaf. While the resultant object is now ‘whole’ to accomplish this the sandpaper has to be mounted and then protected in a layer of resin rendering its original function impossible, leaving the question is the repair doing help or harm?
The Excavation Series was the first series of work produced on the theme of repair. To begin, layers of fabric are slowly laminated together to create a unit of relief. From this whole sections are surgically excised exposing various strata underneath and creating wounds. Finally these fissures are laboriously mended through a form of tinsmithing that patches the damaged area while still cleaving to the whole. This form of repair becomes so physically invasive and disruptive that the method of alleviating trauma becomes a new unintended form of trauma itself.