Artist Statement

box, bread, space, tool, painting, performance, place

 

I am a visual narrative

I am the cultural product I inhabit

I am the culture I critique

I am the culture I create

I am studies of the grey/gray space in between

I am nostalgia of places I have never been

I am a memory of the places I want to go

 

We live in an age of consumerism, wherein people are quick to buy easy and cheap products.  This rapid and frivolous consumption often seeks to satisfy what is missing. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, consumerism has increased, as well as the pace of life. We move further away from being connected to the ecosystems and the ability to be self-sustainable on our individual journeys.

What we now call “sustainable” is less than what it essentially means: the ability to take care of and provide for ourselves in the most basic human ways (food production and preparation, shelter and furniture construction etc.)  The environment is continually deteriorating, our landfills are full, and our natural resources depleted. Due to this age of consumerism and the lack of knowledge of sustainability, we now find ourselves in a state of economic and ecological crisis. Through my work, both material and conceptual, I investigate physical interactions, visceral, sensory, tactile, emotional experiences in art and life.

 

Everything around us is relevant; the objects collected in an art piece or within one’s home are all part of the experience. Textures, sounds, the arbitrary existence of something or its absence in that space collectively contribute to an individual’s experience of ‘space’ and hence, life.  What is the value of our lived experience as it relates to art as a daily practice?  What metaphorical connotation does a chair have at a table versus a bench? What historical relevance do certain objects hold in our memory and why are they important to our present or future?  Is the texture, finish or design of objects within a space significant in our relationship to that space? How does it enhance or detract from our sensory experience, influence our memory or the quality of our lives?  I am fascinated by how people move through their personal spaces, and how it is a direct reflection of how they move through their lives. I am working to understand the psychophysical connection people have to the spaces they inhabit, or rather the culture of how we understand our body in space.  This information translates into my current work with performing installations.  Movement through constructed environments encourages audiences to observe and or engage with the materials and their histories/stories.

 

Evaluating these broader concepts in my work and reflecting on my childhood growing up in rural North Carolina, I have become conscious of the inseparability of food, home, rituals and practices as art practices. My relationship to food is connected to the environment, cultural interactions typical of southern families and self-preservation (gardening, baking, preserving). Having lived in urban areas for the past five years issues of access, social justice, health and sensory experience of food began to connect to my artistic inquiry. Over the past year I have committed myself to deeper investigations surrounding food as a reflection of cultural values. I have researched beekeeping and practiced at gardening, cooking, bread making and cheese making. This process has highlighted the relevance of the performative aspects of these practices and rituals and their connection to our socialized and gendered identities. My work is not limited to a finished product but continues to evolve by and how people interact with it; touching, smelling, consuming and talking about what the pieces or environments evoke for them.  Significant to my work both physically and metaphorically is the repurposing of historic and natural materials.  The histories of the structures and materials are invaluable to the development of my work and by this, I find I most often investigate these metaphors of home, and relate the architecture of buildings to the framework of our lives.

 

 

Cathy O’Keefe, from her article Culture as a Guidepost for a Balanced Life, invokes the spirit of William James, the father of American psychology who “advanced the idea that we can’t think our way into a new kind of living; rather, we must live our way into a new kind of thinking.”

I am interested in promoting participation and exploring ideas of ecological design and sustainability in our lives, relevant to human wellness and vibrant cultural progress, to create spaces for critically reshaping our tools (perceptual and material) necessary to manifest art as a lived experience.  Issues of accessibility and social responsibility in art making are a primary consideration and concern in my work.

 

box, bread, space, tool, painting, performance, place

I am a visual narrative

I am the cultural product I inhabit

I am the culture I critique

I am the culture I create

I am studies of the grey/gray space in between

I am nostalgia of places I have never been

I am a memory of the places I want to go