ARTIST STATEMENT

 

We are both a system of organisms and an organism of systems. We are a part of the natural world and yet simultaneously separated from it due to our ability to change and influence our environment. The duality inherent in these statements is something that fascinates me and influences my installations. I explore this issue by developing works that find the tension and boundaries in our concepts of organic and inorganic, reality and artificial reality, permanence and the ephemeral. Content-wise, my art often expresses these opposing forces in a time-based, process-oriented approach.

The Sweetened Reality of the Three-fold Nature of Memory (2010) is a responsive video object that explores relational memory through three distinct layers of crystal structure ordering. A looped animation is projected onto a screen made of compressed sugar. Behind this “sweet screen” is a crystalline sculpture made of white plexiglass. A series of nozzles above the “sweet screen” mists water that dissolves the sugar. As the “sweet screen” dematerializes, the projected animation reflects off the plexiglass surface behind it and is distorted. This video object explores memory by separating it into three distinct parts: experiential reality as represented by the projected animation, retinal capturing of the projection as it hits the “sweet screen” and the weakened temporal state of memory as the animation is distorted by the crystalline sculpture. The entropy inherent in this system breaks down the permanence of the crystal order into an ephemeral state of liquid disorder.

The Assumption of Critical Mass (2010) is a dynamic installation that de-evolves its form over an undetermined period of time. An architectural structure composed of compressed sugar is placed under a series of nozzles. A microprocessor randomly opens and closes the nozzles, releasing drips of dyed water onto the structure. Over time the water erodes the support columns, eventually leading to the collapse of the structure. The permanence of the sacred geometry of the architecture is left in flux, as the eventual outcome can be determined through systematic reductionism. It is not a question of if the form will return to an ephemeral state, but when.

The Living Stainglass Window Project (2010) replaces the colored glass of a typical stainglass window with dyed agar media. The agar media is a nutrient rich medium that is used to grow microorganisms. The window is exposed to the air of the environment where the window will be shown. Once exposed, the window is sealed and hung for display in a predetermined location within the space. Within days, growth of bacteria, fungus, and mold will be visible on the colored portions of the window. These microorganisms will continue to grow for months until they consume all the nutrients within the window, at which point they will die. This piece explores the microscopic, organic world that is simultaneously around us and a part of us. Stainglass windows typically were used as a means of projecting the human animal beyond its organic makeup into the world of divine order. This window inverts that system, reducing it back to its ends.

My aim as an artist is to create propositional systems of visual engagement through the use of multiple medias that challenge the viewer to generate new narratives for highly unusual scenarios. Through these systems, I poetically explore the relational constructs between the organic and inorganic, reality and artificial reality, and permanence and the ephemeral as developmental metaphors.