Portfolio
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Statement
Much of my work stems from an interest in the understated aesthetic qualities of my common and culturally specific surroundings. When I come into contact with familiar objects, symbols, or materials, I often feel they are and always have been a part of my world, as if they are inherent in piecing together a compositional story of my day-to-day life. Yet there are hardly occurrences when these visual signifiers have had an obvious and notable effect on me. I’ve come to know them through conditioning and acculturation, and through this, they bring a sense of unknown nostalgia. This nostalgia is unknown, not because of unfamiliarity with the objects around me, but because of an attention I pay to them that I’m trying to reconcile with. This work is far from melancholic; rather it exists as a grounding curiosity of prevalent influences that have inevitably shaped my visual and experiential preferences.
My sculptural works often reference ubiquitous design, vernacular architecture and identity, and objects and spaces that we feel an inexplicable closeness to. An object like a post box may be utilitarian in nature, but its presence is so widespread, I gain an affinity for it, and imagine others feel the same way about other items they indirectly interact with regularly. These sculptures and installations challenge ideas of familiar form and material through new trajectories in abstraction, contextual appropriation, and subtle humor. I ask viewers to participate in acknowledging memorable objects in their specific surroundings and to place themselves in transferable experiences of my own with the hope of producing a relatable feeling.