Reconstruct -Installation 38th Fleisher Wind Challenge Exhibition 2015-16
As I walk through these streets, I watch the skeleton of this city running beneath my feet with the intricate weaving of pipes and sewers under the sidewalk. Looking up at the parallel slants of sky, I see the structure of the roads repeated in the structures of the buildings that surround me. I create moments where my porcelain installations access dimensions of both the urban and psychological landscape. Handmade pipes, bricks, crown moulding, tools, architectural drawings and conservation equipment converse within the gallery space but also with the structure of the city as a whole. Perhaps there are moments where manhole covers lead to black holes, endless gravitational pits and portals to the unseen structure of the city and our greater universe. Working in architectural conservation for the past three years has given me the opportunity to connect to the skeleton of Philadelphia and to allow its infrastructure to influence my art. Building materials attempt to be strong and stable , but I make these objects from porcelain, a material normally reserved for fine dinnerware or delicate figurines. These objects are all made by my own hand, piece by tiny piece. This choice allows my work to play with the industry of construction that I am so involved in. Fingerprints and cracks on a life-sized hammer made of porcelain not only questions modern values of refinement and durability but also connects me to the objects. Tools and materials are manufactured by machines and come out polished and uniform, but in my art, I choose to allow the traces of imperfect human touch to remain visible. and connected to my interaction within the city as a whole. It is my goal to present my world with authenticity and humility thereby revealing the human experience that our environment suggests.