wood, carpet insulation, dry wall - installation with varying dimensions-2018
Shelter is understandably infused with utmost significance and formulates our concept of Home. My work dissects this notion of Home and unravels its possibilities. I often find myself contemplating the structure itself and how it relates to our survival instincts. Inspired by animal architecture, urban remnants and construction site scraps are the resources of my habitat that are scavenged and formed into conceptual shelters. Employing a reverse anthropomorphic approach, these scraps are manipulated and assembled into nested layers that undermine the developed, wild the tame and reconsider the man-made.
Influenced partially by my past as a homeless youth, I have a keen interest in what makes a survival structure become a Home. It is embedded with notions of identity, property and safety as well as emotional factors like comfort and peace. Narrowing it down to the core, I’ve concluded that Home is a place where one belongs. What underlies the emotive characteristics of my work is this sense of belonging and/or the lack there of. There is the allowance for the expressive hands of the maker to forage a place of belonging. Animals choose the size, weight, and texture of a building material in relation to its physical capacities. The animal's body is often the epicenter of construction as the walls are built and cavities are dug. I work in a similar fashion sometimes in a bizarre state of frenzy or desperation. Literally, I am building something to crawl inside, something to cover.
In November 2017, I collaborated with 4 other women artists to co-curate an exhibition at a DIY venue in Oakland, CA. We wanted to celebrate the Oakland underground art scene and help keep independent venues thriving in lieu of the tragic Ghost Ship fire in 2016 and the devastating impact it had on the local arts community.
steel
36” x 34” x 8”
2017
wood and steel
35” x 48” x 23”
2017
Inspired by animal architecture, urban remnants and construction site scraps are the resources of my habitat that are scavenged and formed into conceptual shelters. Employing a reverse anthropomorphic approach, these scraps are manipulated and assembled into nested layers that undermine the developed, wild the tame and reconsider the man-made.
During my residency at the Metro Central Transfer Station, my resources were plentiful. This allowed for the act of not only scavenging, but collecting to inform my process. I focused on gathering multiples of a specific material, making repetition in form and texture an emphasis.
The individual pieces are titled after specific animals and their engineering architecture. The sculptural forms do not function as precise renderings but as a result of abstract influences of various aesthetic qualities.
wood lath
34” x 46” x 46”
2015
scavenged baskets
28” x 61” x 30”
2015
6 inch steel nails
8” x 20” x 22”
2015
plastic, steel
6” x 23” x 23”
2015
bicycle chain
16” x 9” x 8”
2015
rope
16” x 47” x 48”
2015
plywood
20” x 11” 12”
2015
steel, string of nails
14” x 22” x 22”
2015
Inspired by animal architecture, urban remnants and construction site scraps are the resources of my habitat that are scavenged and formed into conceptual shelters. Employing a reverse anthropomorphic approach, these scraps are manipulated and assembled into nested layers that undermine the developed, wild the tame and reconsider the man-made.
mixed media scavenged from demolished house
25” x 94” 94”
2012
metal fences and gates
85” x 42” x 41”
2013
wood lath and carpet insulation
33” x 90” x 36”
2013
scavenged Icelandic wool
40” x 29” x 30”
2014
This page is currently under construction. Details coming soon…
