My practice interrogates the union of nostalgia and labor through traditional sculpture materials and installation techniques. Working in ceramics, bronze, and wood, I reveal my personal memory in resonance with a collective history of labor and creation. My work asks how domestic places alter our lives and shape our identities. How do we transform these spaces in return? Coming from a family of farmers, mechanics, and carpenters, I see their touch and hear their tales echo in the world around me. I seek to excavate the myth, wonder, and secrets hidden in seemingly trivial memories. From the faded wallpaper of my mother's bedroom to a weary sigh of aging parents laboring for me, these modest moments become monuments to the labors that quietly exist around us.
Through traditional materials and craft techniques, I seek to imbue these moments with the weight of history and human effort. In using cast bronze, I build upon and challenge the ancient value of this material by burying it under plaster, paint, clay, or concrete to equalize the contemporary and the historical. I devote my work to ceramics’ sincerity, vulnerability, and domestic history by developing my clay bodies and using traditional hand-building techniques. Obsessed by the significance of place, my work employs the sensibilities of home construction trades. Using walls, doors, flooring, and windows, I lovingly craft distorted domestic spaces as a tribute to the labor of those who lovingly crafted me.
Selected works
“ENTER/EXIT,” 2019, pine studs, drywall, insulation, electrical, trim, paint, 6 ft. x 5 in. x 8ft. Photo credit: Misha Kligman.
“Affective Architecture,” 2024, pine studs and joists, salvaged subfloor, drywall, wallpaper, trim, 13 ft. x 15 ft. x 12 ft. Photo credit: Graham Carroll.
“Shifted Perspectives,” 2022, cedar studs, donated dichroic film, reclaimed windows, doors, and LEDs, 7 ft. x 7 ft. x 9 ft. Photo courtesy of the artist.
“Lessons Learned,” 2021, altered fan blade, house paint, 4 in. x6 in. x 22 in. Photo credit: Isabel Tignor.
“INHALE/EXHALE,” 2020, bronze lath, plaster, pine, nails, wallpaper, 19 in. x 7 in. x 28 in. Photo credit: Misha Kligman.
“Mortal Architecture,” 2024, drywall, ceramic, bronze, walnut, cedar, masonite, house paint, 10 in. x 6 in. x 13 in. Photo credit: E.G. Schempf.
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67 Broadway St, Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 785-1357 | info@centerforcraft.org
Gallery Hours: Tues–Sat, 10–6 get more info
Gallery Hours: Closed — Reopening Fall 2019
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