Much of what I do with found objects is to consider what makes something sacred, or valuable, and why.

The motifs of binding and perforation are present throughout these works. I am exploring a common thread with multiple inferences. Nails and perforation have obvious implications in Western Christian culture, but have also been used in other cultures to represent thanks, protection, the sealing of oaths and ill wishes toward an enemy. My relationship with these symbols is in the style of some African fetishes– which I also see in the crucifix- the intention of binding oaths, sealing promises and making contracts. I am intrigued by the concept of an oath as an intangible way to secure a tangible effect- I will it into being.

For me it is preferable that a piece has ambivalent aspects; questionable materials, sacrilegious connotations (which is never my intent by the way) preciousness married to refuse, sacred to secular.

To make a piece with a single strain of meaning renders it static, denies its movement, and its own purposes outside of my hand.

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My work is available at 2AU Limited, in West Des Moines Ia. Continue reading →