This work explores the idea that we fabricate understandings of our own past experiences, often for the better, and rarely is it that our memory preserves an accurate depiction of reality.
I wanted to work with paper pulp to express this idea for both its malleability– when wet it behaves like a wet clay body, it’s abundance in my studio (I often work in various printmaking process and tend to never throw out even the most grotesque mistakes) and, lastly, because the use of this recycled material into a new purpose resembles the process of manufacturing these typically false memories. The old print material I’m repurposing as paper pulp no longer has any true resemblance to it’s origin, just as my memory of the places I’ve lived in the past do not accurate represent the events that took place.
My practice is continually experimental, I like to create new material concerns and see how many ways I can solve the problems I present myself with– this often results in many iterations of the same project, though with each iteration brings more nuanced understanding to both material as well as to the conceptual content of my work.
I wanted each detail of this sculpture to be a part of this iterative process. Including these cast resin hardware pieces served to reiterate the idea of creating false reality by subverting the more formal language of carpentry. I wanted to create a base or pedestal which retells the lies of the sculpture. I did this by using the most limited, seemingly unbalanced design, hiding the actual hardware which holds the stand together and emphasizing the fake, technicolored hardware; bringing the false depiction of reality to the forefront of the object’s design.