Cenotaph
glass, paint, light, sound, fan, ceramic, photographic gel, chair
dimensions variable
I am interested in how objects represent syntax and how disambiguation can break down language. I utilize painting, photography, light, projection, and sound to create sculpted environments that are lit much like an object that is to be photographed--leaving the mechanical trace of the camera to the viewer's stance. These multi-material installations aim to transcend materiality by positing the viewer's faculties (both individual and communal) as syntax, encouraging communication on a perceptual level. My practice is less concerned with the individual materiality of objects, and more with how they link together as tokens within a larger system. I have been interested in the word cenotaph: "an empty tomb or monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere." The cenotaph becomes an analogy for the empty space between communication; a radical alterity.
"When you look into the eye of a bird and you are standing in front of a million years of history and it’s looking back at you but you can’t comprehend what it’s seeing. You are a witness to it but somehow not a participant of the same world.”