Artist Statement
I’m interested in examining the individual human experience within the built environment, forming a comparison with the experiences of our distant ancestors who made the natural world their home. My work aims to point out dividing lines between individuals that act as barriers to social interaction and community building, as well as divisions that separate the individual from nature. Modern, modular architecture quietly, yet firmly, takes physical and psychological control of the body and the mind, barring the individual from connecting with the world around them in unexpected ways. This, in combination with the prevalence of geographic mobility, threatens to abrade one’s sense of ownership, place and ancestral belonging resulting in a sense of dislocation and disempowerment. Raising a dialog around the individual freedom to re-script his or her movements, social interactions, and survival mechanisms is a goal for the work.
Many of my objects and participatory experiences function as a surrogate for a given user; easing discomfort and acting as a stopgap to temporarily fulfill the need for contact with one another and/or the natural world. The unattainable goal of replacing our communal experiences of nature with a man-made product is sardonically highlighted as works fail to live up to expectations. Through this investigation of our past and present experience, I examine human nature: who we were, who we are, and who we strive to become.