Crafting Ruin

Crafting Ruin presents sculptures of hybrid anatomies merged with their surroundings. These figures are compromised by situations of consumption, excess and disregard, played out on their dioramic surfaces. Bodies composed of dirt are paved over and strewn with litter. A figure formed of ocean water is covered in industrial and tourist vessels, plastic washing up at its feet. In these works, I am not so much interested in how waste is generated, but rather how we re-digest popular images of accumulation and environmental degradation, weaving them into the fabric of our subconscious. The sculptures embody these internalized and conflicted narratives of want and ruin, reifying them in monstrous and mythological proportions. Though informed by broader cultural desires and anxieties, the works resonate at a more personal level through the use of playful humor and autobiographical reference.

The figures I create build on the tradition of the grotesque, as a significant marker of the abject body throughout time. Through its distortion of the natural, this genre has long functioned as a cultural tool for visualizing and coming to terms with transition. In my works, I have combined grotesque representations from historical painting and sculpture, as well as contemporary pop culture, to create psychological and visual links between our selves and our shifting environment.