Title
They Are Us, August 2020
Description
The installation was inspired by the front page of the New York Times on Sunday, May 24. The front page that day was dedicated to all the victims of COVID-19, both recognized and unrecognized, and served as a monument to the 100,000 deaths recorded at that point. The page itself featured the name and brief personal description of 1,000 people from various parts of the country who had died from COVID-19.
This work questions the symbolism of the United States Flag and the more important ideologies it is associated with. The installation features 30 canvas flags, each of which is 5 x 2.75 feet and hand-painted. Divided between these 30 flags are the names found on the front page of the New York Times. Each flag features 34 names which are written in reflective, metallic chrome.
Title
Original Sin, September 2020
Description
This performance piece questions the Catholic notion of original sin. In the Catholic church, each member is born with original sin. This is something that we all inherited from Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. Upon being baptized, a child is absolved of original sin but is still considered weak and prone to sin. This performance piece is a meditation on that reality. It deals with two main questions.
What if I decide to bear the weight of original sin? Does humanity need a God to absolve its sins?
The yoke in this piece is designed to represent original sin and the water dripping into the buckets is our accumulated sin. The performance features two buckets which are slowly being filled with water from a source above me. I kneel in the river until the water stops dripping or the buckets are full. Then I dunk my head in the water.
Title
Follow The Thread, June 2021
Description
This performance piece deals with intrusive and obsessive thought patterns. I have struggled with obsessive thoughts my entire life, wrestling with the guilt and fear that so often accompany them. This piece is designed to replicate the experience of entering into the modality of an obsessive thought stream. It takes place deep in the woods. In this piece, I created wooden blocks with metal rings fixed to each one’s top. Then, I put each into the ground and connected them with fishing wire, forming TRAPPED. Once the sun sets, I begin to follow the wire, using only touch, to weave a red thread around the pre-set woodblocks. During the performance, I am attacked constantly by mosquitos, afflicted with cramps, and beset by intense summer heat. When I can no longer bear it, I move away from the word TRAPPED with the red thread. I run the thread through the woods back to the beginning of the path so that viewers can use the thread to find the piece.
Title
I am a Sinner and I am Saved, July 2021
Description
This piece revolves around the duality that is a part of every Catholic’s identity. We are told that we are both inherently sinful, yet we are also saved through the grace of God. I find this duality to simply be untenable for a mortal being. It places the guilt and absolution of a God upon the shoulders of a follower who should not have to bear either. To demonstrate this, I created a piece in which I attempt to physically hold this duality. I made two seven-foot wooden crosses with fragments of glass affixed to each. I stand in the middle holding both using a fishing wire. Each cross faces a chair, one of which says Sinner and the other says Saved. I attempt to bear this weight for an hour, starting at 4:30 am until Sunday dawn occurs. I cannot do so and, after slicing my hands, the crosses come crashing down well before dawn.
Title
Preparing For Enlightenment, January 2021
Description
This book is the product of an eighty-day performance piece where my sole task was to confront who I am. Each day I did forty minutes of meditation, a predetermined reading, and wrote a page on what I had learned or thought about that day. Then before I went to bed, I finished the phrase I am and recorded what I said. This piece was meant to highlight the struggle of inner growth and the fallacy of new age spirituality. People want a guidebook or a guru to tell them exactly how to fix themselves. Ambiguity and uncertainty are regarded with a certain degree of disdain. There is no quick fix, and as I found with this book, the questions often get more confusing. This book is a collection of 80 pages of writing and some additional drawings.
Title
Things You Cannot Change, July 2021
Description
This piece revolves around my struggle with gender identity. Ever since I was young, I have been told I should look, act and dress as a man. However, where I grew up, being a man seemed to involve treating others poorly and repressing your emotions. If you didn’t work like that or decided that traditional masculinity was not for you, you were automatically gay. There was nothing other than that binary where I grew up. For me, this piece is an appreciation of the moment I was able to accept myself as a non-binary individual. It is a statement that I am willing to accept the parts of myself I will not change for anyone. This piece is an “acceptance well” made from recycled bike and car tires. There is a broken mirror at the base of the well, which is in conversation with a full mirror placed in the yellow tire above it. From the yellow tire, there is a fish string that supports the structure of bike tires that form the body of the well. Finally, there is a rock with pennies and the quote “ Accept the Things You Cannot Change”.
Title
Hold Fast, September 2021
Description
This piece is a tribute to Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Old Man and the Sea. The struggle in that novel between the old man and the fish fascinated me. When I was younger, how Hemingway described the battle captured my imagination every time I read it. He made me feel like I was in the boat and surrounded by the ocean and sky. As I grew older, I began to see this struggle in a more existential light. It became about my desire to create as a means of holding onto the divine. I wasn't quite sure what the word "divine" meant, and even now, I still struggle with how to fully articulate its meaning. However, that old man's desperate struggle to hold onto something he can't see but can feel the raw power inherent to it felt akin to my artistic struggle. I have always had that desire to stay connected to this divine, universal energy even when it feels like it could drag me into a world I do not know. It is a tribute, really, to that feeling. The sea creature is composed of sections of a telephone pole connected by a chain and lock. The fins are made of recycled wood, and the little fisherman is attached by a red thread running from his pole to the "mouth" of the creature.
Title
Return To Home Soil, August 2021
Description
This piece was the embodiment of my experience with self-discovery. For most of my life, I have tried to find a sense of contentment by never remaining constant. Whether it was a change in place, a different relationship, or finding a new obsession, I just wanted to feel okay with who I was. In this piece, I explore that there are no wrong steps if you start from an authentic place within yourself. There will undoubtedly be moments where you go down the wrong path, but if you start from that grounded beginning, you can always return to it should you need to. For this performance, I walked in each cardinal direction, using Oberlin as my starting point. On each walk, I carried a hand-carved staff upon which I had emblazoned passages from Psalm 23. I walked each direction for around three and a half hours, a time which was determined by my first walk North. From each direction, I collected a large amount of material. From the North, I collected sand; from the South, I collected clay; from the West, I collected gravel; from the East, I collected wood shavings. Finally, I arranged all this material into a path which people could walk upon. At each end was compost from Oberlin, and at the end of the path, I placed my staff and 40 little candles. Surrounding the path were tiny guardian statues I carved for each direction. Finally, there was a soundscape I created from the noises that I heard on my walk. People were encouraged to remove their shoes and walk the path.