"Space To Grow" Installation, 2017.
Looking to express the vernacular markings in each of these aged objects as their own unique chapter in a haunting past, this installation is subjective and open to the viewer to interpret at their own pace and depth.
A sense of "fleeting hope" is present as the viewer is subtly invited to explore the space (sometimes rebelliously) but is often left with more questions upon reaching seemingly dead-ends.
The artist has intended for these external explorations to lead the viewer to explore their personal connection to the objects. In this way, the work is arguably conceptual. The decontextualization allows the viewers to become as "involved" in the scene as they please, acting as voyeur into some esoteric laboratory, or as scientist directly involved with the strange relics before them.
Use of text is intentionally limited but meaningful, acting as an objective support to bridge the viewers' personal character into the mysterious narrative echoing around the space.
Imagery is often more rewarding for the viewer to discover, seemingly more direct and helpful in its subjectivity than any clues the viewer can derive from text.
The purpose of the work was to create a dialog about personal burdens, to console and empathize with the viewer in the same ways it evokes melancholy and trauma.
Texture, materials, color, subject, and composition combine to create relics from familiar places, but perhaps at an unknown point in time; the resulting aesthetic is similar to dejavu, but the viewer has forgotten what they were dreaming about...
Familiarity in the objects themselves and contextual clues presented to the viewer posses political and cultural overtones of issues plastering U.S. media since the 2016 election.
Themes of conditioning, boundaries, capacities, and other cultural constructs begin to arise out of the subtle cues in the arrangement. The voice of the work is very quiet, a whisper that is only made louder when the viewer considers every decibel present.
Inspired by the vernacular spaces in society that are often subjected to constant expression (graffiti) and censorship by local governments or private entities; the artist believes exploring these marks as a visual language can heighten the viewers perception of where else censorship is actively perpetuated.
