Assemblage
A few years ago I began a series of sculpture that was an exploration of the connection between the “synthetic” and the “natural.” For as long as humans have been creating objects, we have been trying to reproduce things found in nature and manipulate them to better suit our needs. This quest for a “better than natural” object has left us with ever growing millions of man-made items produced from natural raw materials. In this series, I have brought this cycle full circle and used these man-made items to re-create natural ones.
Armed with various pieces of hardware and kitchen implements (which I have used to represent the “male” and “female” of the synthetic world), I have made a series of animals using the technique of assemblage – the creation of sculpture from existing materials. In addition to the symbolic meaning, it is particularly exciting media for me because it is a chance to breathe new life into objects that for one reason or another were unable to fulfill their original purpose. So often we find ourselves accumulating and then disposing of objects that we didn’t really need in the first place. I love the idea of using these societal discards to create. It is so much better to make art than to let something languish in a drawer for decades or worse yet, forever in a landfill.