Artist Statement
I draw inspiration from my education in psychology and my early training in weaving to explore the walls we build around ourselves. Those barriers range from the geological and architectural to our own formless psychological constructs. In object-based work representing these boundaries, I push the limits of my materials—cast concrete, marble, obsidian—through transformations that ask viewers to question their expectations about material integrity. I mix real with simulacra throughout my work: cast concrete reads as marble; rigid objects undulate; heft defies gravity. By juxtaposing high-end with commonplace materials, I make it difficult to tell the difference and challenge viewers to question their own assumptions and material hierarchies.
My series of Folds—cast concrete slabs scaled to my body at 66” long—bend like fabric or foam, eliciting curiosity about their rigid material make up. I cast each Fold by twisting and pushing pigmented, wet concrete into a urethane rubber mold. Then, using padding and ratchet straps, I push the sculpture into its final form before the concrete completely cures. The Folds’ scale, physical presence, and weight allow viewers to relate to each sculptural “body,” such that each being, boundary, or swirling surface comes alive. The obsidian boulders weighing down the marbleized surfaces seem to teeter uneasily, heightening the works’ sense of tenuousness.
In my most recent series of Bound Landscapes, I have shaped marble back into topographical forms that mimic the material’s source. Each hand-chiseled slab is bound in a cast concrete frame that also reads as marble. By framing ancient building materials mined from mountains within contemporary construction material, I draw attention to the ways in which humans attempt to harness the environment.
Our contemporary moment is marked by rigid boundaries that constrict us rather than connect us. By pointing to the value systems we impose to neatly categorize and understand our world as being culturally- or self- imposed, I aim to challenge and expand our frameworks of understanding. My aim, in all of my works, is that barriers—real, self-imposed, and imaginary—are set askew.
