From the series "Interchangeable Parts"
For many years I have been exploring socially framed ideals of femininity through my work. In this recent series that subject is still present. "Polished Wax on Fur Pillow" in an excellent example of how that theme has manifested. I often use materials as metaphor or as a kind of citation of social constructs. In this assemblage I have taken materials that bring with them specific contextual associations. Take for instance the silk tassels. They are often found on women's garments and were popular notably during the 1920s when femininity was going through a significant transformation. Along with greater freedoms, both political and personal, the female image began to be tied closely with photography and cinema in particular. In her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Laura Mulvey analyzes the role of the camera as voyeuristic "eye" and specifically uses film-icon Marilyn Monroe as an example of how film has shaped our view of women and especially the female body.
"Polished Wax on Fur Pillow", very directly plays with the motif of the reclined figure so often present in classical figure painting and later repeated in the form of "femme fatale" from classic Hollywood. In this case, the female figure is substituted by a re-configured scented candle adorned with depilatory wax "beans". This work plays with the idea of the curated and polished beauty presented for display. However, in this piece it is an object on which that careful manicuring and delicate attention is lavished. It is that object that reclines and anticipates being gazed upon.
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The concept for this series, although heavily influenced by cutting-edge digital processes still takes its cue from art history. The individual components are very much inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's Combine Paintings and specifically "Monogram", 1959. The effect of this inspiration can most directly be seen in the mixture of artist-manipulated elements, in his case brush strokes and in mine shaped plastic or hand-sewn soft sculpture, placed in direct contact with unaltered found objects, with Rauschenberg the goat and tire and in my work the emoji-esque Styrofoam peaches. A further correlation can be found in the manner of inserting quotidian articles into a fine art dialog. Just as modernism and pop-art used the vernacular of the ready-made to comment on contemporary culture, I too am using materials drawn directly from consumer culture in order to address our current moment. Most particularly, what scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene: an epoch that can be geologically identified as significantly altered by humankind’s exploitation of the environment.
The arrangement is modeled after the manner of Renaissance still lives and works by the Dutch Masters. Those paintings were constructed like dense
matrices of symbolic objects. This is the case with "Interchangeable Parts Composition" as well. Even though it may seem to be a combination of disparate items, each material is in fact chosen precisely for the myriad connotations and associations it can elicit from the viewer. Another aspect that pulls from this art historical reference is in the presence of dramatic drapery and the highly staged, controlled chaos. A table spilling over with abundance is the perfect metaphor for a world drowning in its own glut of unchecked materialistic greed.
