Farewell Foolish Filaments, 2019-20
Just one more, 2019, 11 x 7.5 x 5 in
Crushed, 2019, 5 x 3.5 x 2.5 in
Double Cut Yourself, 2019, .75 x 8 x .125
Scultpures I created of representational objects in that include parts of the body, hand held tools and components of consumption. Each work is the approximate size of the original item. I construct each piece from magazine ads that I smash together by hand mixed with water and a small amount of acyrlic medium. These works often appear dirty and gray as the colorful pigments from a glossy ad become mixed together in the process, destroying the original image. I liken them to ash covered remants of a time past, perhaps discovered in an anthropological dig.
The title of the series is a partial appropriation of the poem “Farewell, Foolish Objects” by Charles Bukowski. In it, the author ruminates on a Sunday morning about production, consumption, death and time.
Created for the MOCA Benefit: Artists and Archive organized by Praise Shadows Fine Art.
The benefit ran Feb 24 - Mar 24, 2020 on Artsy. Funds went towards the Museum of Chinese in America in its recovery from a fire in January. Each artist created a new work in relationship to a piece in the archive.
New Automatic is a paper sculpture created in response to the 1920s iron (catalog # 2008.001.016) in the MOCA collection. I was particularly drawn to it as I often use an iron to smooth out fabric and paper pulp within my own artistic practice. The manufacturing date would of been around the same time my grandmother was born; she was a model and started her own etiquette school. She might have used some of the products from the brand, aptly named "American Beauty". Remembering her large collection of digests and weekly periodicals, I decided to create a new iron from some of the advertisements around my own home.