Method of Loci
5' x 7' x 8'
plywood, cheesecloth, tyvek, tea, wood, plastic, ceramic, found objects
c. 2019
Imaginary Tyrants: Being or Thinking
Installation dimensions 168” x 168” x 78”.
Partial canoe, plastic and metal machine parts, plastic and wooden children’s toys, doorknob, cobbler's shoe form, piece of pipe organ, glove, tiara, small thurible, scientific equipment, and grape-stained organza gift pouches.
c. 2020
What would life be if we had to prioritize only one: thinking or being? I’ve met people who seem to favor one party or the other: the bad either excruciatingly self-reflective or superficially active, the good content in a deep understanding of their own complexity or else profoundly in touch with nature, or some chosen work. Recent influences have instilled in me a desire to make a definitive choice between the two. While I debated intellectually, I built this piece. It’s a pair of shrines: a place to worship both ideas, and to manifest an intuitive debate. To do so, I created a simple game for myself with the objects in my studio. On impulse alone, I had to choose objects from all my various piles and determine which camp each fell into. As usual, I endow matter with far too much initiative.
In the end, I couldn’t choose one way of living over the other for myself. No human can fully renounce either party, anyways; I’ve accepted that it’s a false dichotomy. What’s left is a record of a thought process: some sort of research.