I'm a sculptor and installation artist who weaves in history through found materials, fabricated elements, arrangement, and context to create meaning. I think a lot about structural vulnerability in my work and my practice, because I initially became an artist outside of an art educational system. I was in anthropology for a long time and worked from within a cultural anthropologist lens.
For about 12 years, the research that I assisted with centered on this notion of structural vulnerability in populations or communities with liminal access. It's an interdependence of a lot of factors that come together to make someone vulnerable. And I think in many ways my sculptures involve a lot of different mediums that come together to fill in gaps. The materials may have formal qualities that provide inspiration, or cultural significance or meaning, and sometimes utility, but then come to be symbolic or surrealist in the constructions that I make.
I build structures or arrangements from a very intuitive place and the process is iterative. The practice of making art is probably the most knowledgeable place I can be in terms of knowing and revealing the world to myself—but also revealing myself to myself. Making things with your hands has its own language, or like a way of getting somewhere unknown. It's like deep sea diving for a language that has no aim.
My process is very much call and response. Often it's a found object that creates a spark. Because there's so much unknown in terms of where I'm going to end up, it creates this beautiful place to exercise all your fears, in a way—by no means getting rid of fears, but constantly building that muscle to trust yourself.
CONTINUE on Joan Mitchell Foundation ...
