Steels, Plastics, Sausages and Lap Dances, 2016
Exhibition at Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
The workings of the actual past + the virtual past may be illustrated by an event well known to collective history, such as the sinking of the Titanic. The disaster as it actually occurred descends into obscurity as itsmeyewitnesses die off, documents perish + the wreck of the ship dissolves in its Atlantic grave. Yet a virtual sinking of the Titanic, created from reworked memories, papers, hearsay, fiction –in short, belief- grows ever “truer”. The actual past is brittle, ever-dimming + ever more problematic to access + reconstruct: in contrast, the virtual past is malleable, ever brightening + ever more difficult to circumvent/expose as fraudulent.
—David Mitchel, Cloud Atlas, 2004
Mapping a memory, mapping a journey, capturing movement. How do memories evolve and fold on themselves – are they real, constructed or simple melancholic fabrications to soothe and glamorize the past. I am interested in abstracting and layering memory, reconstructing history and creating a sense of longing.
The goal of this exhibition is to engage the broad cultural questions of memory, evidence and preservation within the context of the studio practice and expand the potential role of art within a critical interdisciplinary dialogue already in progress.
The only works I brought to Cambridge from my studio in Los Angeles are four 10x8” paintings made out of wood, urethane resin and spray paint. They are the only objects from my LA studio and in the Carpenter Center they have become ready-mades. For this exhibition these ready-mades were digitally mapped and printed.
A protective poisonous air (Link)