TREES
I started the work in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a grad student, where it grew in the cracks of my other work. I came back around to it in the quiet wilderness of Finland (2017) during a residency with Arteles, where our cell phones were confiscated and access to the internet was restricted. Here, I began to think more deeply about my relationship to the digitally curated world of relationships our devices proffer, and to the natural world—a vast complex web of interconnectedness.
Defined by my feelings about the trappings of modern existence and their relationship to social ills, perceived heirarchies, and division, this work is a meditation on digitized (and therefore disembodied) connection, mass-production, and convenience. Addressing complexity and the layered nature of lived experience, it contradictorily delights in the smooth finishes, seductive textures, and satisfying color palettes of contemporary material culture. It also touches on issues of control and letting go, with each tree frozen in a psychological vignette of intimacy and distance.
DIGITAL ISLANDS (…A PLACE WITHOUT AN OCEAN) // 2023
Select images and details from the Solo collection, Digital Islands (A Place Without an Ocean), at the Mesquite Arts Center (Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, TX).
Photo Credit: Shawn Saumell.
SKIN HUNGER // 2020-2021
Select images and details from the SKIN HUNGER Series in various group and solo shows.
Skin Hunger is the term for the psychological and physical effects of going without touch for too long. Each installation is a snapshot of relationships that dance in and out of balance, moving between stages of alienation and intimacy, isolation and dependency, fragility and resilience.
As a series, SKIN HUNGER originated as a meditation on the impact of COVID and as a musing on the future of collective human experience, increasingly mediated by machines. It questions where the body comes into play in this new future.
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SKIN HUNGER II // 2022 // CICA MUSEUM ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM
SOLO // CZONG INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART // INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA
These are select details and videos from a collection of miniature vignettes completed over a 10 week period as the Czong Institute of Contemporary Art’s Museum’s (CICA Museum’s) Artist-in-Residence. A continuation of the Skin Hunger Series, these vignettes explore shifting landscapes of intimacy, and qualities of isolation and connection. This collection touches largely on the illusion of control, experienced through various technologies in our daily lives, and enhanced within the studio.
THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS // 2019
SOLO // 500X GALLERY, DALLAS, TX
There Will Come Soft Rains // Never Let Me Go // Love After Love // Electronic Moondrip
Images from 4 vignettes featured in a a solo exhibition entitled ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, a title which pulls from Ray Bradbury’s science fiction story, and Sara Teasdale’s poem, each of which touch on trauma, healing, violence, and alienation in post-apocalyptic landscapes being reclaimed by Nature.
Titles were inspired by poetry, literature, and science fiction, stories or snippets that touch on cycles of rebirth, growth, and healing.
SOUND: Sound environments for the sculptures were woven into the exhibition ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ (500X Gallery, Dallas, TX). In this exhibition, each vignette incorporated digitally-read and remixed poems (Harvest Moon by Carl Sandberg, There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale, Love After Love by Derek Walcott, and Let Go by Jack Davis). These poems were set against the backdrop of ambient synth soundtracks, inspired by nature, composed by the Australian musician and composer, Carlin McLellan of Hidden Sky.
The title pulls from both Ray Bradbury’s science fiction story, and Sara Teasdale’s poem, each of which touch on themes of nature, and resilience in post-apocalyptic landscapes of healing from trauma.
OTHER DETAILS
Ghost in the Machine // What Grew and Inside of Who // During Fertile Periods Everything is a Song // Orchid Child
Titles are from: 1980’s Police Album, Lyrics from Feist songs, and the psychological theory of Orchid & Dandelion children.
I sought solace in the branches, songs, water, and trash I unearthed while creating these — tiny dollbaby soap hands that were a stocking gift from my mother I carried for years, bristles of a found scrubbing brush, the various ports + medical extensions like the ones that kept a family member healthy when he was sick, and those fascinating ‘nipples’ beneath computer keyboards.