Through my work I have explored
histories both recent and distant. The former span
pre-historic millennia and continue at this very moment.
They came into being with the brink of humanity, that
period when primal distinctions were determined-- social
orders chosen.
My current work seeks more distant histories, those that
pre-date such notions ashumanandanimal.
They are fathomable in infancy and on the edge of slumber.
It is through a certain remembrance that I might retrieve
them.
I employ raw clay masks and “prosthetics” as a means for
altering my body. The plasticity of clay allows me to shift
shape by sculpting and re-sculpting new limbs and epidermal
layers. It enables me to penetrate the boundaries of my
skin. At times these layers act as metaphors for
enculturation. It is by tearing through the mask-like shell
that I seek a primal essence. In other instances such
devices allow me to manipulate exterior form and interior
being. Through these methods I explore a space that is
genderless and cultureless.
Clay is a material that has been mythically linked with
physical embodiment for millennia and across myriads of
cultures. It can implicate a hairless, fleshy landscape and
emulate the skin’s life-glow. As clay dries it takes on the
delicately withered patterns of the aging body. The mutable
nature of this material allows room for a process through
which I seek transubstantiation.
Primal differentiations allow humans to cope with the
mysterious and enigmatic workings of the natural world and
its link with social reality. Rules, and therefore taboos,
were established in order to more clearly define the
borders that designate proper ways of living, of being a
part of the social body. Through this work it is my goal to
reenact a prior existence, to find moments in which I can
live on the fringe of culture.
