artist statement
BFA Hunter College 2022
My work invites the viewer to wonder if there is something beneath the surface, something familiar beyond what’s obscured. I play with the uncanny—the feeling of grasping for the memory of a dream—and with concepts outside the limitations of language. I use layering, process, and the distortion of images. My fascination lies at the line between abstraction and representation, and I am influenced by Hito Steyerl’s concept of the “poor image,” a deteriorated “ghost of an image.” A once crisp picture becomes nearly unrecognizable. Images are filtered and corroded through the clay to convey sensuality, liminality, and a resistance to categorization. My work harmonizes the visual and the material realms. In my ceramics practice, I employ photography, printmaking, and painting techniques. I lean into the manipulation of visual forms through various material processes. I enjoy the interaction of clay, brush strokes, carving, and glaze application, which serve as filters. I think of each layer as a film that allows partial visibility to what lies underneath. I want the surface treatment to obscure some elements while keeping a visual history, much like glazing on an oil painting. I aim to impart a feeling of almost being able to name something, but not quite being able to put it into words.
One process I use is projecting my edited photographs onto the surfaces of the work, using them as a guide for carving or painting. For each image, I consider the way the editing software simplifies it, the way the projector blurs it, and the way the form of the piece distorts it. I use technology not to distance myself from the making but to create more opportunities for artifacts and traces of my own touch in the work.
My nerikomi pieces explore the grid, partially inspired by Rosalind Krauss’s 1979 article, “Grids.” Historically about ordering the way we perceive, the grid is a metaphor for the visual field. I integrate the grid into the slab itself, and the medium of clay shifts, distorts, and pulls at the grid structure’s initially rigid shape. I then use glaze and the firing process to veil what lies beneath.
In my non-ceramic work, I am obsessed with the idea of a moldable image, incorporating stretching and shifting elements. I have experimented with image transfer onto various materials. I make inkjet prints on drafting film, apply acrylic gel medium with my fingers (a process that includes the hand by smearing the image), and in some cases peel off the acrylic “skin” with the imbedded image and then apply this to sculptable backings including wire mesh and vinyl. These images start out as flat, but through my process, they become more and more distorted. In other works, I make screens from clay, vinyl, oil/acrylic paint, and resin, and I use projections in the final work. Both the surface itself and the viewer’s interaction with it shifts how the image is perceived.
I think a lot about decision-making in my practice. In traditional painting, every brush stroke is a decision that requires careful consideration. In contrast, my methods allow the material and process to make those decisions for me. When I am carving, I follow the pattern and let the shakiness of my hand decide how the lines look. I let the computer make binary decisions, such as which areas are dark or light. I let the broad brush strokes of the pigment or glaze add movement, and ultimately let the firing transform the surface. In my nerikomi work, clay inherently fights against ordered rectangular shapes. The push and pull is intentional, provoking the failure of the grid. I surrender to the process and allow the work to unfold.