My work encompasses the making of objects that monumentalize a moment washed away or objects that will themselves wither away. I address the reiterations of both factual histories and historic ambivalences and engage in issues of cultural self-preservation. This includes disputable pasts, the non-authentic, fictions and their non-fiction counterparts. It takes on the form of large brown sculptures that act as theatrical backdrops for events or performances. Candy and dirt installations embody detritus or garbage swept up after a festive parade.
The work often includes brown blobs smeared onto a wall with an American flag or large brown shadow monsters painted within the interiors of buildings- demarcating space and at the same time, isolating itself, thus separating the viewer from the work. It only allows the viewer to engage at a particular distance. More recently, the brown works aspire to relocate themselves- imposing itself and its literal color onto the landscapes of other countries (Rolling Hills (Sweden in Brown)), which is based on a current project of projected and imagined spaces. The installation work suggests a new perspective and creates new architectural relationships between viewer and object.
Concurrently, my performance work incorporates the brown object. The brown object gets buried in a vacant Chicago lot, reminiscent of desolated and deprived public spaces. The brown object also acts as a bonding agent between a historical mural site- onto the face of an indigenous Mexican and the artist herself, embodied in a mass of cheap, plastic tablecloth (16th Street Corridor). During the UBS 12 x 12 MCA Exhibition (October 2009), I directed a group of people to walk through the MCA’s First Friday event for an hour-long performance piece, where each performer dressed in brown clothing. They immediately contrasted the landscape of this semi-decadent event with a slow-paced and protest-like stride. They then exited and returned to the sculptural installation within the 12 x 12 gallery.
Brown-ness becomes other-ness, then becomes something-other than itself- an IMAGINED SELF composed of millions of self-reflections and a continuous loop of reinventions. The work seeks to discard itself, as like garbage and possibly be reborn- as if it were as alive as its maker.
The work often includes brown blobs smeared onto a wall with an American flag or large brown shadow monsters painted within the interiors of buildings- demarcating space and at the same time, isolating itself, thus separating the viewer from the work. It only allows the viewer to engage at a particular distance. More recently, the brown works aspire to relocate themselves- imposing itself and its literal color onto the landscapes of other countries (Rolling Hills (Sweden in Brown)), which is based on a current project of projected and imagined spaces. The installation work suggests a new perspective and creates new architectural relationships between viewer and object.
Concurrently, my performance work incorporates the brown object. The brown object gets buried in a vacant Chicago lot, reminiscent of desolated and deprived public spaces. The brown object also acts as a bonding agent between a historical mural site- onto the face of an indigenous Mexican and the artist herself, embodied in a mass of cheap, plastic tablecloth (16th Street Corridor). During the UBS 12 x 12 MCA Exhibition (October 2009), I directed a group of people to walk through the MCA’s First Friday event for an hour-long performance piece, where each performer dressed in brown clothing. They immediately contrasted the landscape of this semi-decadent event with a slow-paced and protest-like stride. They then exited and returned to the sculptural installation within the 12 x 12 gallery.
Brown-ness becomes other-ness, then becomes something-other than itself- an IMAGINED SELF composed of millions of self-reflections and a continuous loop of reinventions. The work seeks to discard itself, as like garbage and possibly be reborn- as if it were as alive as its maker.
