Statement
My studio practice manifests itself from my childhood experiences and memories - one of growing up within the suburban landscape of malls and shopping plazas. Of visiting only American tourist attractions like the Liberty Bell, Santa’s Village, Gettysburg, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Hampton Beach, NH; and of living in a domestic space curated and decorated with collections, from the curio cabinet full of Lenox, to the fridge littered with souvenir magnets, to the twelve years of CVS Christmas ornaments that hung on the mantle. The self fashioning of the domestic space through mass produced goods compels me to examine the types of objects marketed to the middle class and how they relate to the American collective conscience. How these items are displayed and sold along with their relationship to the domestic space influence my thinking and making.
I source my materials from antique stores, E Bay and Etsy, like a medieval knight on a quest. I hunt, scour, and dig for objects evocative of personal memories as well as collectibles and souvenirs containing images of celebrities, populist icons and Americana. It is within these objects that I read a subtext into what and who America values. By re-contextualizing their original intent and meaning, I interject my own social and political commentaries. Operating within the intersection of the collection, the souvenir, porcelain kitsch, absurdism, and comedic performance, I critique and celebrate the psychosis of middle class suburban life and the artificiality and ambivalence equated with it.
Description and Process
The critique of American culture through the lens of kitsch is the subject of my life long investigation and pursuits. I re-contextualize ordinary domestic objects to interject social and political commentaries dealing with belief systems and standards of morality, grounded in religion, class and race.
Sourcing my material from thrift shops, antique stores, E-Bay and Etsy, I gather objects evocative of personal memories as well as collectibles and souvenirs containing images of celebrities, populist icons and Americana. I am always looking for something specific but something also remarkably ubiquitous and ordinary.
For my series of blue and white porcelain panels, I explore personal and cultural memory, value and class. I slip cast these objects in porcelain and smother their surface with blue and white Delft-inspired decals. The alchemical change that occurs in the firing process turns memories into memorials, ultimately transforming vintage clutter into blue and white porcelain paintings.
Within the souvenir plates that I collect, I explore erasure, absence and loss within the collective American consciousness. I use a dremel tool to meticulously remove the auxiliary imagery, exposing the raw ceramic surface. I equate the violent act of erasure with the content of the plates themselves -from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the whitewashing of America’s history and the societal value of heteronormativity. Through questioning the stereotypes and propaganda disseminated on collectibles of the past, I reopen a conversation about ideals and beliefs within contemporary American culture.
My studio practice manifests itself from my childhood experiences and memories - one of growing up within the suburban landscape of malls and shopping plazas. Of visiting only American tourist attractions like the Liberty Bell, Santa’s Village, Gettysburg, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Hampton Beach, NH; and of living in a domestic space curated and decorated with collections, from the curio cabinet full of Lenox, to the fridge littered with souvenir magnets, to the twelve years of CVS Christmas ornaments that hung on the mantle. The self fashioning of the domestic space through mass produced goods compels me to examine the types of objects marketed to the middle class and how they relate to the American collective conscience. How these items are displayed and sold along with their relationship to the domestic space influence my thinking and making.
I source my materials from antique stores, E Bay and Etsy, like a medieval knight on a quest. I hunt, scour, and dig for objects evocative of personal memories as well as collectibles and souvenirs containing images of celebrities, populist icons and Americana. It is within these objects that I read a subtext into what and who America values. By re-contextualizing their original intent and meaning, I interject my own social and political commentaries. Operating within the intersection of the collection, the souvenir, porcelain kitsch, absurdism, and comedic performance, I critique and celebrate the psychosis of middle class suburban life and the artificiality and ambivalence equated with it.
Description and Process
The critique of American culture through the lens of kitsch is the subject of my life long investigation and pursuits. I re-contextualize ordinary domestic objects to interject social and political commentaries dealing with belief systems and standards of morality, grounded in religion, class and race.
Sourcing my material from thrift shops, antique stores, E-Bay and Etsy, I gather objects evocative of personal memories as well as collectibles and souvenirs containing images of celebrities, populist icons and Americana. I am always looking for something specific but something also remarkably ubiquitous and ordinary.
For my series of blue and white porcelain panels, I explore personal and cultural memory, value and class. I slip cast these objects in porcelain and smother their surface with blue and white Delft-inspired decals. The alchemical change that occurs in the firing process turns memories into memorials, ultimately transforming vintage clutter into blue and white porcelain paintings.
Within the souvenir plates that I collect, I explore erasure, absence and loss within the collective American consciousness. I use a dremel tool to meticulously remove the auxiliary imagery, exposing the raw ceramic surface. I equate the violent act of erasure with the content of the plates themselves -from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the whitewashing of America’s history and the societal value of heteronormativity. Through questioning the stereotypes and propaganda disseminated on collectibles of the past, I reopen a conversation about ideals and beliefs within contemporary American culture.