Artist Statement

I work with three main elements: tension, perception, and environment to examine the physical and philosophical perceptions placed on public spaces. My work looks at how these perceptions are influenced by individualizing factors such as race, cultural upbringing, history, and education. These factors can impact the way we understand and move through the world. Through sculptures and site-responsive installations I draw attention to ephemeral moments and the negative space between solid structures. I appeal to the viewers’ attention by disrupting and distorting the way we perceive space and depth. By connecting these themes of power and perception, I create works that induce a somatic response: a physical uneasiness or unbalancing, to question hierarchy and power structures within public spaces.

My site-responsive Installations build off existing architecture, extending it into negative space such that it directly engages with the environment and viewers. This is achieved by using materials such as glass, bronze, wood, neon, fiber, dye, mylar, and light. When combined and arrayed in repeating forms and patterns, these materials confuse viewers’ depth perception. Visual blind spots and distortions act as metaphors for the things we don’t see or question within our everyday surroundings. By heightening a viewer’s self- awareness within a space, I ask them to reflect on their preconceived notions of these spaces and the wider connotations these environments can have within society. These questions illuminate how the act of altering movement through the spaces can, in turn, encourage new forms of engagement, discovery, and self-reflection from the community.