Thesis Exhibition: March 22-25, 2017

Opening Reception : March 24, 6-8pm

Ladder Knot

Ladder Knot (details)

Artist Statement

I have never fully identified myself as an artist, the term floats to much in a vocabulary that is ambiguous and does not give a personal directive for my work. Within this series I seek more to be a conscious citizen and to identify how one can engage in the practice of art making as a means of civic duty. Through this series of works I attempt to ask how can sculpture act as the tool of changing perspectives. In identifying a personal conflict of what class and privilege mean and the legacy of that space I endeavor to find the rituals that perpetuate the division of society. Placing the knot as a central theme, the pieces purposefully conflict with themselves. Through the use of knots as both tools of binding one object to another and as a cultural ritual placed on the body as a means of adornment. The knot acts as both the object and the ritual that has a lasting effect. In this pursuit I am attempting to identify the narrative of class as it relates the adorning of the male body. By identify the domestic space as one of ritual, this work seeks a path of self-reflection by facing daily actions as a means questioning social trends as they exist today.

            Through this lens I wish to identify where truth and honesty exist in our practice. In these materials and forms the role of truth is played out as a representation of conflict that has yet to be undone. This show presents the knot as tied, as a form that is yet to be unfurled. That binding of the knot is an act and is one crafted from putting one’s hands into and on the issues and problems that constrict both the body and mind.