Previously on view in Brown University's Persona Exhibit.
Revolving around the broad subject of ontology and exploring existence, the piece examines what it means for something to be. Focusing on the foundation of ontological formations: time, space, embodiment, knowing and performing, the work is an abstracted depiction of experiencing life without visually depicting something that is alive. As ontological formations exist in neither void nor vacuum, the piece consists of four interrelated components whose formations create a reticulation.Done as a final for Wintersession 2016, Be: An Abstraction of Ontological Formations is an intertwined system and network of multiple pieces of mixed media.
Every experience of being is related to the physical or metaphorical hand. The five plaster gauze casts of the hand moving through space examine the idea of absence and presence through physical gesture. These hand casts attached to plastic bags are an examination of the differences between active and passive participation in the same activity: holding or being held.
Beginning with the list of 317 selected moments and sentiments encased in five pieces of glass on the floor, each line expresses my experiences of being. The encasement of these words is an attempt to monumentalize transient moments. By switching between passive and active, first and second person, and past and present, I am creating a situation which allows the viewers to project themselves onto the work and exist through someone else’s experiences.
The shadows on the wall cast by five scored acrylic squares are a representation of Narcolepsy-induced sleep paralysis and hallucinations. The large pane of glass in front of the acrylic squares is a representation of the feeling of entrapment and experiencing the unreal while awake that sleep paralysis and hallucinations induce.
317 vessels created from finger casts filled with dirt and pulverized glass sit on the table. Functioning as an examination of the body as a cavity, each finger cast becomes an individual vessel, while together they create a larger form. Still a vessel, this larger form has gaps and spaces. Like the plaster hand casts, the cumulative vessel is an examination of absence and presence. Unlike the hands, together the finger casts represent the gaps created when experiences are shared and the singularity that exists in a togetherness.
