My Work,
is derived from personal experience and relationships; rejection, endurance, trauma, loss, memory and transference become the overarching themes of all series. Initially beginning with the documentation of artists, I found I could get close to them and their work through photography. I began to see these artists as collaborators to the images. I moved us into the studio inserting myself to the frame, exploring the connections and dependence I had developed outside of their work or environment. This led to the beginnings of self portraiture.
As these relationships grew stronger and then weaker, the Smother series took several forms; all focusing on my body. Whether presenting myself without cover or intimately performing for the viewer, I always maintain the emotional vulnerability I feel, alongside the strength I need in order to challenge those who see me as a spectacle. Often, the intent of the work presents a conflict through either a disguise or visual confrontation. I explore seeing; specifically the relationship between the observer and the observed, with intermittent focus on the moment of looking in the time-based gaze in search of a space to comfortably occupy metaphorically.
Digging introspectively to determine the reason I photograph myself with people I develop relationships with, the Magnetism series became an autobiographical exploration of how I fit into the world, with my physical size as the largest inhibitor to a secure sense of belonging and barrier to emotional intimacy; it shows the degrees at which I alter myself and my actions to literally and metaphorically fit in perceived ideals.
This work coincides with wire formed body parts, Memoirs print sculptures degrading and fading as the unfixed salt solution ages; representational marks we carry internally from these relationships, the external bruise fades with time while the action which created it lingers.
The physical object is always a driving factor; handmade books, paper sculptures, the accumulation of things, I am comforted by these relics held in memoriam. Relational Spaces documents the objects symbolic of those in my life past and present while I explore the transference of personal histories through curated, shared spaces and belongings handed down.
As these relationships grew stronger and then weaker, the Smother series took several forms; all focusing on my body. Whether presenting myself without cover or intimately performing for the viewer, I always maintain the emotional vulnerability I feel, alongside the strength I need in order to challenge those who see me as a spectacle. Often, the intent of the work presents a conflict through either a disguise or visual confrontation. I explore seeing; specifically the relationship between the observer and the observed, with intermittent focus on the moment of looking in the time-based gaze in search of a space to comfortably occupy metaphorically.
Digging introspectively to determine the reason I photograph myself with people I develop relationships with, the Magnetism series became an autobiographical exploration of how I fit into the world, with my physical size as the largest inhibitor to a secure sense of belonging and barrier to emotional intimacy; it shows the degrees at which I alter myself and my actions to literally and metaphorically fit in perceived ideals.
This work coincides with wire formed body parts, Memoirs print sculptures degrading and fading as the unfixed salt solution ages; representational marks we carry internally from these relationships, the external bruise fades with time while the action which created it lingers.
The physical object is always a driving factor; handmade books, paper sculptures, the accumulation of things, I am comforted by these relics held in memoriam. Relational Spaces documents the objects symbolic of those in my life past and present while I explore the transference of personal histories through curated, shared spaces and belongings handed down.
