The sculptures below are stagnant or interactive and are ordered in reverse chronological order.
The sculptures below are stagnant or interactive and are ordered in reverse chronological order.
This kaleidoscope was made as part of the Akumal Arts Festival. It sits in the school yard of the local elementary school. The chamber at the bottom is left open so children can put any object inside it and watch it be abstracted. It is an object of play, discovery, and learning for the young children of Akumal.
A video of the view of the inside with simply a leaf inside the base chamber.
Top of the scope view.
View of the chamber where one can put objects to be abstracted.
As part of the Akumal Arts Festival I built two outdoor kaleidoscopes. This one hangs on the grounds of the community center. The viewing end has a eye hole and the other side is open for viewing the outside world through a kaleidoscopic vantage point. This promotes play, creativity, and exploration with the world at large.
Outside view.
Inside view of scope with a little boy looking through the open end.
Inside view of scope with a little boy looking through the open end.
Inside view of scope with a little boy looking through the open end.
Outside view.
Outside view.
Outside view.
Inside view of scope with a little boy looking through the open end.
This piece was the first manifestation of an installation version of The Intimacy Handbook Zine. (See the the Zine page for info on the full project.)
This is a communal timeline spanning from ages 0-75. There are 5 personal questions, each associated with a color. A viewer encouraged to:
“Fill out a card below of a moment of significance to add to the collective timeline.
Each card is color coded by category.
Recollect, record, then peel and adhere to the timeline.”
The 5 questions.
I made this piece for the Trash is Art pop up show in Williamsburg Brooklyn. This mixed media sculpture was made of a mix of found objects, plaster cast body parts and other materials. It is a working fountain showing a figure washing them self in a trash can. Satirically inspired by the name of the show and the direction our lack of sustainability is taking us in, it was also intended to be somewhat imposing upon the small gallery space, with the splashing of water and the awkwardly shaped body. Also the face, hands and arms were not water proof so they slowly broke down through out the show, the plastic of the piece, stayed intact, as it inevitably will for centuries.
My contribution to the street art festival “Akumal Festival de Arts”, see, https://www.tortuga-escondida.com/festival-residency . I built 18 swings around the pueblo for the children and adults to play or sit on. All the swing seats were painted by the children of the pueblo. I put them up in places of import around the Pueblo. The schools, the community center, the play ground and major thorofare as well as a glowing map of all the locations of the swings. This interactive piece of art or common toy depending on perspective will remain as long as the people of the community wishes it to.
Leaves, wax, balsa wood, airplane wire, fasteners, LED bulbs, wires
Inspired by a belief held since childhood that sunlight through leaves make beautiful ephemeral stained glass windows. It is intended to be a blend of the industrial and the natural on the outside. A meeting of the delicate and the strong. As an observer walks beneath it the more esthetic glass like effect is revealed.
Beeswax, Paper towels, wood, steel, bike gears, bike chain, lights
The wall or Screen is a wooden framework with paper towels dipped in beeswax panels attached. The gear mechanism is a steel framework welded together to hold the cranks, gears and chain that make up the metal mechanism. A rotating rod attaches the mechanism to the wall. As a viewer works the pedal the wall beds back and forth, changing the shape of the room. The panels fluctuate with the movement of wall, expanding with the implication of breath. The choice to change the shape of the space to induce what some find comforting and others claustrophobic is up to the viewer.
A short clip of the piece being interacted with.
Balsa wood, bees wax, cotton thread, sewing thread
Part 1.A. of the piece consisted of a simple delicate wooden cube I construct and hung from the ceiling and walls by cotton sewing thread in a dark room. It hangs at eye level. Four thin bees wax candles reach inward toward the center of the box, attached to different corners. Each candle is lit and burns down; when it reaches the wood it ignites and burns until it puts itself out. The remnants are left and another flammable object is hung in its place. This piece both changes based on who is in the room and also physically affects the viewer. The shadows change based on new bodies in the space and people naturally move differently because there is something both delicate and dangerous in a space. This piece also aims to acknowledge time's passage, and inspiration was drawn from movements such as the auto destructive art movement.
Balsa wood, bees wax, cotton thread, sewing thread
Part 1.A. of the piece consisted of a simple delicate wooden cube I construct and hung from the ceiling and walls by cotton sewing thread in a dark room. It hangs at eye level. Four thin bees wax candles reach inward toward the center of the box, attached to different corners. Each candle is lit and burns down; when it reaches the wood it ignites and burns until it puts itself out. The remnants are left and another flammable object is hung in its place. This piece both changes based on who is in the room and also physically affects the viewer. The shadows change based on new bodies in the space and people naturally move differently because there is something both delicate and dangerous in a space. This piece also aims to acknowledge time's passage, and inspiration was drawn from movements such as the auto destructive art movement.
Balsa wood, bees wax, cotton thread, sewing thread
The second part of the piece is a ready-made smaller version of the sculpture intended to be taken by any who view the sculpture. Attached to the miniature version is instructions of a durational act to be done while the object burns. These kits were inspired by DADA kits, balsa wood model airplane kits as well as a desire to create work that exits the gallery space and de-glorifies the art object. A destructive act can be intimate and gallery spaces are rarely intimate, I want viewers to experience the piece both in an institutional and then private space.
I hung 40 of them from hooks attached to the ceilings at the beginning of a show, with a sign telling viewers could take one. They were all gone long within the first hour and a half.
A list of potential instructions that could be attached to the take aways.
4'x3'x3'
Latex, Canvas, Steel, Tempurpedic foam, Speakers, Zip ties
This interactive piece consists of two half pill shaped objects hinged together, an interactor can open the piece, sit inside it and close it around themselves. The inside offers approximately the same amount of space to an interactor as a fetus enjoys at 8.5 months of gestation. It is dimly lit, soft, warm and contours to the shape of the body. Once inside the foam soundproofs and the hidden speakers play the sounds a fetus hears while in the womb. It is obviously not an attempt at an accurate re-entrance into the fetal state, but it is an attempt at once again creating a simple, contained, consuming and comforting atmosphere. Claustrophobia is a common, this piece also ask the viewer if it is possible to choose to contain the body and also enjoy it.
Directions on how to interact with the piece.
This image was taken when it was inside the Skin Room.
Abandon Pierre Provincetown MA
Wood, thick cotton rope
I build a gorilla sight specific instillation on an abandon pier in the center of Provincetown MA. At low tide the pier is entirely exposed, at high tide entirely under water. I placed three swings upon it at different distances into the ocean. The closest, and shortest, swing is visible and available until the hour of high tide, the middle until the mid-point of the tide cycle and the farthest out, and longest swing, is only operational during low tide. I did this without permission and have left it to weather the tides without maintenance. These documentation images are taken by strangers, posted on social media, usually with inquiries attached, asking the community at large as to the swings origin point and reason for being.
With Facebook comments.
With Facebook comments.
With Facebook comments.
With Facebook comments.
Marble, twine, heavy cream, cardboard carton
Dimensions vary based on length of the twine
A marble breast hangs from the sealing at eye level by four twine ropes, atop the marble is a box of heavy cream, from the nipple slowly and steadily drips heavy cream creating a pool on the floor.
I built what apeard to be a standard drywall across one studio space. In front of the wall was a small table. On the table were several kitchen knives and a paper with the simple instruction, "Stab the wall." Viewers entered the space and began to stab the wall, once punctured the dry wall began to bleed, sometimes oozing blood, sometimes a larger quantity would come forth. Many viewers were hesitant with their first stab, but soon lost inhibition. One person left and returned with a sledge hammer, they ripped it apart until their was only the bones of the wall remaining. This is an image of the remnants of the room.
The piece was a serious of psychological and sociological questions on human tendencies. Asking the if the viewers would feel empathy for this somewhat anthropomorphism object, or disgust at this parody of life? Would they revel in the destruction or feel a hesitancy? Would the individual be more destructive in a group (a hive mind) or alone (a sense of anonymity)?
View through a hole in the wall.
Canvas, acrylic, candle, wood, fire
8” x 8” x 6”
A wooden frame holding three canvas on top of each other. A hole through the first two with a candle going through it, attached to the third canvas. The whole structure sits protruding from the wall in a dark room. When the candle is lit it burns down, creating ever changing shadows as it burns. The holes are large enough to allow the flame to burn with out catching the structure on fire, but only just, so the canvas is singed as it burns down and leaving only wax as a remainder. After one burning another candle can be attached. There is the tension between the candle and the canvas, the phallic and the orifice. A tension between the viewer and the fear of the danger of a flame.
Post burning
Side view (post burning)
Balsa wood, acrylic, glue
4” x 2” x 5”
I hand crafted a balsa miniature reproduction of my childhood home from memory. Then, in ironic honor of my younger self’s urge to destroy all suburbia, I passed around a pack of Marlboro reds and burned it while allowing everyone in my class to light their cigarettes from the flames.
This is an image of a veiwer lighting their cigaret at the burning.