Bodily Insertions
These projects focus on the insertion of my body into and against the built environment. In Blonde Winch, a thick lock of my hair is cast in concrete and looped around the hook of a large brass chain. The block itself sways slightly in the air, hovering off the ground as if to suggest that the hair will break at any moment. Yet, the blonde hair, however weighted by the concrete block, continues to be more resilient than the viewer feels should be possible. Scrape & Drool is a 2 channel video that situates hundreds of photographs of skyscrapers against a video of me open-mouth gagged and drooling. The luxurious real-estate quality photographs of the phallic buildings appear one after another, reframed by the uncomfortability of an increasing struggle to keep my jaw unhinged. Meanwhile, Daddy Pulls My LOOSE Tooth By Slamming the Door! responds to the youtube phenomenon of children documenting pulling their teeth out through slamming doors. On the end of a thin string sits my wisdom tooth and the brass strike plate of a door, suggesting that in trying to yank the wisdom tooth out of my body, the architecture had to succumb alongside it. While these sculptures reframe existing power dynamics of architecture and body, this need not be fatalistic. For in every case, the unbelieving endurance of the body draws metaphoric conclusions between the impact of the built environment and our capability of perseverance.