Chicago, I neither wish to valorize nor essentialize you. Just talk it out.
In moving from one location to another I am geographically uprooting and rediscovering my social orientation. During this renegotiation of space, I seek to answer the question of what marks have I left on my community and what marks has my community left on me? From urban, to suburban, to rural, I explore the social dynamics of people and the spaces they inhabit. Specifically, I find inspiration through abandoned properties that are both created by these communities and then collectively discarded. I create interventionist ceramic sculptures that are installed on boarded buildings in my current and previous neighborhoods. My sculptures become a symbolic breathing apparatus for the building when it cannot survive on its own.
My sculptures are hand-built figurative personifications of the buildings on which they are installed. The figures’ expressions are plagued by infliction, similar to buildings in their current state. These pieces are designed and installed with particular consideration to the buildings' architectural accents, previous business, and both social and community histories. I articulate upon the scars these histories have left on each location; cracks and lines are highlighted as architectural details. My pieces subtly bend into their surrounding by mimicking the painted surfaces they are mounted on. Whether it is the color of the building or a paint swatch, which coats previous acts of mark making, it draws attention to those scars. Through the adornment of added sculptures, the buildings are being nurtured to atone for the community’s wrongs.
The addition of my pieces makes the site a location of place making. Each artwork is titled with the address of the installation to signify it’s connection to the timeline of the building it is attached to. My locations are chosen through data collected from public records of community complaints. I look for buildings that were reported by the community as a detriment to the neighborhood. My work is then presented as photographic documentation of this social interaction.
With life comes death and then rebirth. These sites are catalysts for conversation on the gentrification of the neighborhood and reconstruction of a failing city and state economy in both private and public sectors. My pieces act as symbolic protectors, while the building is in a state of comatose until it becomes reincarnated through gentrification or demolition. I present the neighborhood community with an incomplete narrative that they finish through their engagement with it. Whether it is ignored, enjoyed, altered, or destroyed, the piece becomes a source of place making.
My sculptures are hand-built figurative personifications of the buildings on which they are installed. The figures’ expressions are plagued by infliction, similar to buildings in their current state. These pieces are designed and installed with particular consideration to the buildings' architectural accents, previous business, and both social and community histories. I articulate upon the scars these histories have left on each location; cracks and lines are highlighted as architectural details. My pieces subtly bend into their surrounding by mimicking the painted surfaces they are mounted on. Whether it is the color of the building or a paint swatch, which coats previous acts of mark making, it draws attention to those scars. Through the adornment of added sculptures, the buildings are being nurtured to atone for the community’s wrongs.
The addition of my pieces makes the site a location of place making. Each artwork is titled with the address of the installation to signify it’s connection to the timeline of the building it is attached to. My locations are chosen through data collected from public records of community complaints. I look for buildings that were reported by the community as a detriment to the neighborhood. My work is then presented as photographic documentation of this social interaction.
With life comes death and then rebirth. These sites are catalysts for conversation on the gentrification of the neighborhood and reconstruction of a failing city and state economy in both private and public sectors. My pieces act as symbolic protectors, while the building is in a state of comatose until it becomes reincarnated through gentrification or demolition. I present the neighborhood community with an incomplete narrative that they finish through their engagement with it. Whether it is ignored, enjoyed, altered, or destroyed, the piece becomes a source of place making.