Cabinet of Curiosity

Amber Library

Foam, wood, white acrylic paint, brown ink, gouache paint, wood, string 

20x14x8

The concept for this sculpture was influenced by cabinets of curiosity. The painting artifact alludes to a greek legend mentioned in the book about King Tantalos and how he was cursed with being unable to reach fruit that would retract whenever he would grab them. Overall, this work is about history and enjoying what it has to offer. The books represents a collector catalogue, as mentioned in the book. The goal with my cabinet was to visually communicate a feeling of completeness and coziness. 

In Process

Memento

Backroad

3 x 1.5 x1.5

rock, black acrylic paint, wire

This sculpture represents riding my bike at night. My sister and I used to sneak out and ride our bikes for hours all night and wander around. The smooth rock stands in for the gravel on which we road, along with the softness of the memory. The wire represents bicycle spokes, and the paint alludes to the nighttime. 

Water Fountain Replica

 

Water Fountain Replica Project

Completed Fountain 

Progress Pictures

Small Water Fountain Replica

Figurative Bust

 

Overconsumption

Air-dry clay, wood, paint, ink, fabric, string, sticks, ribbon, brown pastel

Top: 3.5 x 4.5 x 6, Bottom: 5.5 x 4 x 7

The first sculpture reflects unethical consumerism and society's ignorance towards it. By using an abundant amount of materials in all different plasticky fabrics, it provides a visual guide of how harmful and unnecessary fast fashion can be. The second sculpture represents the underpaid and harshly treated workers who are first hand feeling the effects of this ignorance. By providing a faceless figure it commentates on how these kinds of unethical companies dont even see their workers as real people. And the coarser materials making up the base with the addition of the sweat beads reflects on how rough the working conditions are.  

Research 

https://www.eco-stylist.com/its-time-to-find-ethical-alternatives-to-fast-fashion-giant-shein/

Greenwashing is a very common claim these types of big unethical corporations make. They find that if they claim to use recycled materials people will ignore the fact that by creating these clothes they are leaving an even worse impact on the environment, "Let’s look at the sustainability of their materials. Dangerous levels of lead and other toxic chemicals have been found in SHEIN clothing. These chemicals are bad for workers, bad for the planet, and bad for the consumers who purchase SHEIN’s clothes, whether new or second hand."

https://brightly.eco/blog/shein-sustainability

Once again, false claims of sustainability is shown through statistics, "The fast fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, topped only by the oil and gas industry. Fast fashion is responsible for 20% of global wastewater and 10% of carbon emissions." 

https://www.elle.com.au/fashion/why-is-shein-so-bad-27846

All too commonly, many of these fast fashion companies are primarily known for the poor treatment of their workers, "On top of that, these employees were only given one day of leave each month and were found washing their hair during lunch breaks due to their toxic working environment."

In Progress

 

Event

I visited the Lightner Museum and picture is myself and the painting Othello Recounting his Adventures to Desdemona and Her Father. In the informational blurb about the painting, they had found a sketch of the painting in Dusseldorf gallery, in which we have reordered when the painting first came over to America from Germany. 

This video is of myself at Katie Hargrave's and Meredith Lynn's Artist Talk. They explained that through their art they wanted to communicate how things can affect how we view public land and national parks. The two of them explained their love and interests for these parks and how they want to find out how people can shape these lands.

Experimental Sculpture

 

Goal

7 x 3 x 6.5 

Tape, Balsa wood, black ink

Balance

7 x 3 x 8

Glue, Balsa wood, black ink, paper

 

Stretch

13 x 5 x 2.5

Paper, Balsa wood, black ink

In Progress

On Longing

 

"The souvenir speaks to a context of origin through a language of longing"

This is an old photo of my sister and I. I literally have no idea why tiny Rory was so happy to pose in front of the Florida sign. We have a lot of photos throughout the years standing in front of this sign, ironically we both hated coming here. Definitely cannot smile as big as that now.

"The souvenir exists as a sample of the now-distant experience that only the object can evoke."

Once again my sister and I, Circa 2017 at Hershey Park. We used to go there as a full family, but now my parents are divorced and my father takes his new family there. Now my mom refuses to leave the south. I cant even remember the last time we've been able to fully dress up for cold weather, I miss it a lot.

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monument, and the three-dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body"

This is a photo my sister took of me last year a few days before college started. We have now made it a tradition to go to this same pizza place an hour away every year, right before school stars to eat this mediocre pizza. But now she's graduating this year and will hopefully move to a place with better pizza where I can go visit her.

"Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss"

    

This is a photo of my sister, my great aunt and my uncle. We probably haven't seen my uncle since this photo was taken, and we used to visit our grant aunt at least twice a year when we lived in New Jersey, but now we never visit and her health isn't good enough for her to travel here. We miss seeing her a lot, she's the only family we like.

"The place of origin must remain unavailable in order for desire to be generated"

This is a photo of my mom, my sister and I. She was a stay at home mom until we moved, she was always scary to us and now she doesn't like our company. Its mostly just my sister and I now, except for when college is on break and we have to go home, but now we try to stay as out of the house as much as possible. It's rare to see us all enjoying time together now.