Beds

Beds is a collection of bas-relief beds, carved out of balsa wood and accented with wood finish, in different states of quiet dishevelment. The different states of the bed sheets and pillows are taken from actual photographs of my bed taken after waking up in the morning. The quiet collection is inspired by the somber Shoes on the Danube memorial in Budapest, which is quiet yet numerous sculptures of every day objects.  

Each bed has four miniature springs on the bottom, reminding one of box spring mattresses. 

The beds are displayed with five large pillows, made of plastic bags, masking tape and stuffing, arranged haphazardly to become almost like game pieces on the playing board of a plastic-wrapped thick foamy platform.

Double Scoop

In response to Australian Ben & Jerry's ban on selling double scoop of same flavor ice cream until marriage equality is legal, I used a double scoop of ice cream as my medium for a temporal sculpture, documented below:

The sound accompanying the video is the sounds of the ice cream dripping on the sand, manipulated for a synthetic, mechanical sort of clock-ticking, glitchy sound. When the double scoops become dramatically separated from the cone and soiled by the sand, the voice says "separate them, right?" and then the hands further separate the two scoops and massage them into the sand until they become another form altogether. According to gotohoroscope.com, ice cream in dreams denotes prolonged romantic involvement with someone, patience in achieving goals, and participation in crucial events. Observing melting ice cream signifies missing out on something and/or chasing after a dream that is unrealistic.

The video shows the banned double scoop ice cream separated from a traditional cone, and heavily manipulated in a very public space, soiled and convoluted, then placed back into the traditional cone in its new form while multicolored ice cream melts and loses its colors on a rock with the passage of time, accented by the soft thumpy drip sounds.

Plastic Dreams

Using the limited materials of plastic bags, yarn, and masking tape, I formed a quilt designed to hang from the ceiling from multiple points, creating a saggy weighted feeling in the "fabric" of the cozy blanket. Inspired by sandals made of recycled plastic bags, I was very interested in using the plastic bags as a sort of fabric. I began stimulating ideas by shredded the bags into long strips (as utilized by Khalil Chishtee in his elegant plastic bag sculptures), braiding the bags, weaving them into a basket shape with wire, and so on, but finally landed on making neat squares of plastic bag material with no writing and limited color palette of Publix beige and Walmart gray.

The edges of the doubled-up plastic squares are held together by masking tape, a pleasant contrast of surface texture, which is further reinforced by the thick woven yarn. 

Soiled

I took my fascination with other languages and found dirty words to render with different found materials dependent on my associations with the words or languages. When looking at the piece, many do not speak Hawaiian, Afrikaans, Chinese, Icelandic, etc., thus creating a barrier to communication, much like geographic barriers dividing land. The viewer is only able to go off of visual cues, and hang on to the familiarity of letters in the Roman alphabet, albeit in unexpected, foreign configurations. Even though the words are foul, such as "scumbag" and "loose woman", this is not what the viewer automatically reads when looking at the display. The pieces all have letters and similar hidden meanings in common, but differ in appearance and material. The creative rendering of the curse words is in part inspired by some of the word art seen in "Graphic Design: The New Basics" by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips. The desire to see dirty words come to life in tangible form sprung from seeing unexpected words appear on Harlie Rush's embroidery hoops in "The Parallels Between Art and Shit". Many language sites and blog site forums aided in the discovery of the colorful foreign curse words.

Kúkalabbi - "scumbag" represented by dirt-filled sack spilling soil onto surface.

Jive Turkey really jives with the use of an electric pink pool noodle.

Sao huo, or "loose woman", fashioned out of orange tie wraps on found wire grate.

Kanapapikis, or "dumb ass", becoming a typeface in its own right from wrapped palm fronds.