RAISED HERE; RAZED HERE
The Raised Here; Razed Here series is about observing the buildings, streets and spaces of Black and urban neighborhoods that are under the forces of gentrification, urban renewal, city politics and economics. These are the forces that effect which buildings in a neighborhood are saved, and which ones are torn down; Which street gets new water lines and who their street paved; Where new parks are built and where empty lots remain. In these works, the trope of the porcelain vessel translates visual and material representations of the sites, locations of homes and architectural structures caught in this tension of use and value. Old or broken bricks, ceramics pipe shards are collected as evidence of this tension, founds parts of buildings and infrastructure made of ceramic material become incorporated into the forms. The printed transfers used depict imagery found in these locations (municipal signs, Tyvek wrap, graffiti, etc) alongside tradition ornamental motifs.
Brick Sculptures (Rubble Mades)
Found Object Ceramics
Treating found and ready-made ceramics as material to be used in the studio is a way of responding to the materiality of ceramics. Something like a graffiti writers’ approach to an empty wall meets traditional ceramics surface motifs and process. Topically these works range: from speculations of value and decadence through ornament, references to pop culture or political commentary.
RIMS
Plates - Dinner China for an Internet Persona
Frames
Slip cast porcelain representations of gilded frame parts are placed on the wall to allude to the standard rectangle of the frame, but veer from it into a language of abstraction. The works result in something that performs as a painting and investigating the tension between a hierarchy of objects, the frame and the art, the signifier and the signified.
BrickScape Residency; Outside Object Doing Inside Work V.2
A 6 week residency of working on site in the Union Building in downtown Charleston, WV. www.brickscape.org/
A 6 week residency of working on site in the Union Building in downtown Charleston, WV. www.brickscape.org/
Post Bauhaus: Fly Sneakers & a Dope Sofa
Pallets
Sinks
This is often referred to as the John Henry sink
Outside Objects Doing Inside Work (Ladders)
Untitled Series (graff kings)
Part Forms
Untitled (plate series)