STATEMENT

I deploy irony and the abject to ponder the soul-crushing banalities of what many might term “women’s work.” It’s funny with a serrated edge. The subjects of my artwork revolve around historical ‘pink collar’ or ‘second shift’ labor (cleaning, class, and caregiving) Utilizing various media including 2D collages, soft sculpture, and large scale sculptural to create immersive installations and environments.

The use of fibers and textiles supports the work conceptually as the materials and processes (sewing, crochet, tufting, and other hand working) are traditionally coded as “women's work.” With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I form sites of transgression and resistance. The materials –often purchased from Jo-Anne’s clearance section– supports the underpinnings of the conceptual implications. I render domestic artifacts in a larger-than-life scale that is flaccid, floppy, slouching, and ultimately spineless, wrinkling in way that only cheap sequins, thin sparkly spandex, and scraps of oil-slick vinyl can.

The work is a fever dream against a deep longing for a fantasy life. It echoes the cognitive dissonance between the realities and tumult within American homes teetering between layers of attraction and revulsion, desire and desperation. My work achieves a surreal sensation because it exists within the liminal space of recognition and discombobulation. I appropriate real objects that are neutered of all utility, devoid of use and ability, and simply –or hostile– asserting its “unuse.” Their grotesque scales and textures are amplified by our understanding of a potential.

The cycles of domestic labor and the abject (within the work I employ the definition of “abject” as the point where there is a breakdown in the delineation between Self and Other), with particular attention given to the body and role of cleaning or caregiving. Conceptually, the work surrounding feminist labor is increasingly focused on a subtle and persistent revolt as it examines the mundane within domestic discontent. The works subvert the aesthetics of the clad midwestern family: syrupy and quixotic in a palette that reflects an exaggerated, cloying sweetness while maintaining a cheapness or artificiality.

The work is situated from my lived experience within American class structures, gender, and poverty. I do not seek to create with a laser-focused clarity or awareness of my intentions and material choices but from within what Bourdieu would call a subordinated position as “the working-class ‘aesthetic’ is a dominated aesthetic;” because I’m trailer trash that likes shiny things and sleazy things and nacho cheese