Thesis Exhibition: April 2 - April 5 

Reception: April 4, 5-8pm  

Sunk, 2024, Cast Iron Tub, 60"x30"x30" 

Between Your Fingers, 2024, wooden fence, pine, dry wall, wool, plastic chair, toilet seat cover dispenser, latex, aluminum chain, 80"x40"x36" 

Artist Statement 

My sculpture practice explores the relationship between the body, labor, and the built environment, focusing on material reuse and bodily vulnerability. I am currently working on a series of sculptures using second-hand materials to interrogate plumbing as a laborious construction trade that sustains modern society while also serving as a euphemism for internal bodily processes. The textures in my work are a combination of sterile materials–like plastic and steel–with raw, untreated substances, highlighting the porous boundaries between inside and outside. These works are suggestions towards the tenuous state of the inhabitable body rubbing up against the built world. At this point of friction we can examine the way the world we design around us affects and is affected by our bodily experiences. Through humor, grotesque aesthetics, and a focus on abject spaces like bathrooms, I aim to destabilize divisive boundaries. By examining the design choices and cultural assumptions embedded in bathroom spaces, I hope to challenge ideals of purity and bodily shame, and envision a world where the body’s vulnerability is embraced rather than stigmatized. 

More information about Madeline Rodriguez at https://www.maddiejonesrodriguez.com/  

All photos credited to the artist.