The Body Is:
“The Body Is:” is a series of sculptures exploring our relationships with our bodies, our emotions and the spaces both inhabit. Body parts are severed, combined in unique ways and decontextualized. Once extracted from their usual attachments, the various parts are installed in new habitats, creating forms both recognizable and disconcerting.
Autonomy
silicone, resin, wood, moss, synthetic hair, foam-2024
"Autonomy" is about embracing ownership of one's body and recognizing everyone's right to inhabit our forms however each of us sees fit. In celebrating this, we choose whether to grow or shave, reveal or conceal, and decide who we have sex with; if we even want to be sexual at all. Autonomy is our refuge and our release. In other words, “pussy grabs back”.
Birthday Boy
silicone, resin, foam , paper, fabric, pom-poms-2020
"Birthday Boy" is a piece inspired by Feral Maz’s time working as an adult entertainer. Sex workers, like clowns, are expected to apply stage makeup, don costumes, and glue a smile in place before busting-ass to entertain their audience. Even when I was the star of the show, I had the distinct feeling of having my wishes ignored at my own birthday party.
Inverse
silicone, resin, wood, moss, foam-2024
"Inverse" the third piece created in my “The Body Is” series, examines the division between the self we present to the world and the self we struggle to accept. Sometimes through concerted effort we manage to befriend our shadow self, permitting our most trusted companions to witness our vulnerability in its sticky misshapenness. Other times we try desperately to keep our shames and struggles hidden, with varying results. What beauty can we find in a chest broken open? What genuine connection might we nurture if we allow our fears to grow into something new?
Cyclical
silicone, resin, wood, moss, foam, canvas, acrylic, blood, dirt, twigs, paper, TPU-2024
"Cyclical" is a visual exercise in exploring cycles of birth, life, death and decay. Cycles of nature play out in a circular motion within the sculpture. The top half shows a grown woman, contemplating the phases of womanhood, while in the bottom roots jut forth from her womb. A new fetus incubates in the soil. Bird-human hybrid creatures hatch from mottled, blackened shells before taking flight. Flying high above the reaches of human tradition and civilizations, the birds are free. That is, until they two must return from the earth from whence they came.
Penis Iron Maiden
resin, silicone, wood, adhesive, foam, paper, gold, velvet, upholstery, steel-2024
The Penis Iron Maiden is an interactive piece that combines the horror of medieval torture with the male phallus. Resembling a cross between an armoire and a coffin, the PIM is activated when participants step inside to be gently impaled by hundreds of silicone penises while they gaze at their own dimly lit reflection.
Dreams of our ancestors
paper, wood, feathers, silicone, acrylic, adhesive, hair, velvet -2025
"Dreams of Our Ancestors" is a wall-mounted sculptural work from my "The Body Is" series. The series, which shows an array of partial and complete bodies framed, segmented, adorned or fusing with the landscape, is my ongoing attempt at figuring out what it means to be embodied. The body, which is our primary method for interacting with the world and those within it, can be many things; a vehicle, a trap, a reliquary, a decry, an admission, a home. "Dreams of Our Ancestors" explores themes of generational trauma and generational wisdom passed along the family line. The feathers sprouting from the thighs transform stunted limbs that cannot run into wings that can fly. The place where the feathers sprout ooze with fresh blood reminding us that growth can be painful and freedom hard won. Other symbols from a dream lexicon peer around the piece, presented as tools or keys for interpreting a vision or message gifted to us by an ancestor. The old-woman-bird, a repeating character in my work, flies over the piece in watchful protection.
Held Together
resin, velvet, acrylic, epoxy, adhesive, dried wildflowers- 2025
“Held Together” is a resin casting replicating the forms of two former lovers embracing. Made at a time when the pair were in a new relationship, the piece encourages viewers to interrogate how a relationship transforms over time. At first it is fresh and new, full of excitement and discovery. As it progresses, the involved parties uncover new information about each other and the relationship that will ultimately inform what path it takes next. Velvet laces wind through skin, reminding us that growth and relationships are sometimes painful. The embracing hands provide support and comfort. Wildflowers, perfectly dried and preserved, become a tender reminder of love that was once present, long after the affection and relationship fades. The embrace, forever held as moment in time.
family jewels
silicone, hair, velvet, polyester, suede, beads, resin, embroidery floss -2025
“Family Jewels” is a playful take on the euphemism representing a person’s testicles. Unlike other pieces in the “Body Is” series that deal with sensitive subjects like trauma, “Family Jewels” seeks to poke fun at the prestigious way society has viewed the scrotum. Allegedly a prized possession cherished for its ability to hold integral familial information, balls are also saggy, wrinkly sacks of flesh and hair. Here we see them appearing to literally contain precious jewels. In actuality the “stones” are nothing more than plastic, a falseness as real as the confidence in which we assign sex at birth.