Statement on Work
This set of works presents a small pantheon of figures, and each figure in the pantheon proposes to harness forces at work in the world today. I am continuing an ancient impulse to give figure to mysterious forces, adapted to the contemporary world. There is a truth-seeking aspect to these proposals -- not truth with a capital-T, but more like what is meant when, after hearing a good joke, you say: "That is so true!" Their objective is akin to Werner Herzog's declaration that his films chase ecstatic truths.
With these works I am also interested in looking at posture and poses. I think attention to these subjects in art could use some recuperation. In India and China in the 7th and 8th centuries, certain bodhisattva sculpture exhibit a surprising naturalism. In their very felt features and poses, down to the slouch of their hips, they sidestep a merely totemic presence, to pull the demigod into our world. Part of my inquiry with this work is to ask how comportment can yield a worldview, and pull the otherworldly into our timeline of lived, human experience.
With these works I am also interested in looking at posture and poses. I think attention to these subjects in art could use some recuperation. In India and China in the 7th and 8th centuries, certain bodhisattva sculpture exhibit a surprising naturalism. In their very felt features and poses, down to the slouch of their hips, they sidestep a merely totemic presence, to pull the demigod into our world. Part of my inquiry with this work is to ask how comportment can yield a worldview, and pull the otherworldly into our timeline of lived, human experience.