Artist Statement

The Universe is a transformative process. It is full of unknown unknowns. The formation of this planet, with these materials, and the specific patterns it needed for humans et al. to evolve as we have… the minuscule odds of this are astounding. And yet we are here, participating in the phenomenological world as living beings.

I have questions about the fundamental nature of existence, and I know most of these are unanswerable. I look for the edges of things, the subtlety of the spaces between what we have names for… the mystery of the liminal, and that which is in the midst of undergoing a shift, to get some sense what kind of ineffable force is behind it all.

In my research, I look to those in the past who have questioned the nature of life. I draw on mythologies, science, alchemy, literature, storytelling, exchanges between cultures of the past, and translations of ideologies as they happen through language, trade of material culture, systems of money, and other forms of exchange. I consider embodiment: the internal and external experiences of what its like to live, move, eat, and touch, within a body. My recent work delves into early digital globalism and how cultural values and ideologies were exchanged for the first time within a massive and instantaneous global network. I am interested in dreams and longings, how they are communicated, and what they say about the kinds of beings we are. 

My work begins with curiosity. Curiosity about a material, process, or form is the motivating force that unfolds in an atmosphere of ideas and research around whatever my particular interest is at the time, be it string theory, the history of video games, Roman architecture, or the psychology of love and relationships. An autoethnographic lens is often present, as I repeatedly ask myself: what is my locatedness in relation to all of this? Where are the poignant memories of my formative years connected to a broader and more universal understanding of a given topic? This lends a self-reflective, childlike naivety to the work which is simultaneously tender and absurd in its directness. I think of the words of Mary Oliver’s poem of admiration of her dog, Percy, who could be ‘silly and noble in the same moment’, as all questioning, all openness, all vulnerability tends to render us.