cases

a series in progress...
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This series begins with an array of figures - bodies as glossy hard cases zipped closed - life-sized shells, containers, described from just below the waist up, that sit on top of tall stands. They reference commercial products, such as equipment cases, coffins, cinema screens, and BDSM suits, as well as classical sculptures. Each figure is imprinted with a photographic image from scenes that depicted narratives of fear that have propagated through our cultural media landscape over the last 40 years.
I use the body as a sight of fragility and empathy to speak to issues surrounding fabricated fear, the role of prosthetic memory in consumer culture, and to expose dominant cultural assumptions surrounding history and memory through image and form. These sculptures reflect upon the modes and strategies that have been used to construct and propagate popular narratives, shifting value systems, and how functioning consumers integrate them as a part of their sense of self, thereby shaping our current situation.
Through the repetition of the human form the significance of the experiential aspect of moving between these objects, inserting oneself, like actors upon a stage, makes the historical and political events depicted on the surface meaningful in a visceral way. Politics, economics, entertainment, and memory, become grounded in the body, thereby challenging the concept of private vs. public property and subverting the capitalist logic that produced them. Through these works, I seek to create alternate commodities imbued with recycled ideologies to expose our assumptions.
All works consist of direct to substrate pigment print on fiberglass twill fabric, epoxy, and zippers. Stands are steel and lacquer.