In my work I seek to capture the interconnected nature of the world that we all exist in. The human society we live in hinges on connection – between individuals, social structures, government regulations, academic disciplines, and beyond – through which many things are inherently linked to other things. I seek to tease out the sometimes invisible, other times conspicuous, web of ties that hold up the world where we live.

My recent work has taken particular interest in the intersections of the body with materiality, production, concept and installation. I am concerned with exploring the ways in which work is embedded within the body and simultaneously becomes external to it. Likewise, I am interested in the way that viewers experience work that is both of and about the body.

I’ve worked recently with porcelain slip and twine – both fired and unfired – to fully engage my own body in concept and production. To create The Body is a Conduit, I dipped twine in porcelain slip in a process which engaged my body directly with material. Immersing the twine in slip became a physical experience in which the thick, liquid clay became an extension of my own physicality, encasing my hands as well as the twine. Long nearly five-foot strands of twine emerged from the process heavy with slip to become an external conduit of my body, from and through which the concept of the piece flows.

Once fired and installed, these external conduits construct a body within the installation space into which viewers can step. The ceramic conduits move throughout, in and out of the space and engage its corners, lines and features. In the materiality, production, concept and installation of the piece, the conduit of the body is both internal and external. Ideas and work flow in and out, sometimes existing simultaneously internally and externally of the body – connecting it to the world of things, ideas and people around it.

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