Artist’s Statement
My sculptural installations utilize cycles of history to consider how we relate — personally and collectively —to the built environment. I am interested in uncovering overlooked histories, and I use urban change as a metaphor for memory, transition and loss. The installations I create are site-responsive: literally made from and in the spaces they inhabit, they are emblematic of the history of that place. My installations highlight events such as a notable building burnt to the ground by arson, a window bricked-over during redevelopment, a doorway widened during building modernization, or an historic structure razed in a step towards neighborhood revitalization reflecting a community’s changing priorities. Through each architectural intervention in a space, I intend to highlight traces of the past as a way to memorialize what came before, frame the present, and inform the future.
Most recently, I'm using virtually obsolete methods for making decorative plaster mouldings. These ornamental techniques used for interior and exterior decoration have a rich history related to the beginnings of stucco in Europe and The Americas. Ornamental moldings created with these methods have become all-but-obsolete, used today primarily for restoration; I intend to use the language of repair to make this work.
My use of traditional plasterwork techniques stems from my fascination with artisan and craft traditions, my own internalized architectural Eurocentrism, and my disdain for this very attraction to notions of European ideals of beauty.
Through physical acts of making, I intend to act as both advocate and critic of the way in which history has been formed and perpetuated over time. Using an historic process allows me to embody the process of remembering, and in so doing, make it relevant to the stories we need to tell today.