Artist Statement
Funhouse
Through the construction of collaged figures with fervent personalities, my work functions both as a mechanical model for the formation of the human identity and as a conduit for an emotional connection. This investigation is powered in part by a desire to demonstrate the fruit of labor and vitality that exists in exploring the self of others, and perhaps by an ambivalent belief that there is fruit to labor over.
The figures embody our unique, personal assemblage of the lively experiences and mechanisms that we consciously and unconsciously use to develop an internal system accompanied by outward expression. Bits and pieces of collage may be recognizable, definable, and contextualized — or not — and emphasize dynamism and malleability of the system.
Using the nature of collage as a language that allows me to take parts from other contexts to create new meaning, I emphasize how we shape our current experience and identity from past experiences and preferences that are constantly being reinterpreted by our most present self. The language of the characters themselves is sourced from an assortment of places, but predominantly from comics, which I find to be ripe for harvest in creating a slosh of childlike expressiveness and hairy abstraction. Paired with jarring dimensionality and raw, whimsical features, a challenging diverse cast of characters is birthed that invites the viewer to consider the functionality of the model and the immediate bond it creates.
