|
|
Picking, bleeding
2016
site specific installation, walls and floors removed through placing dots of hot glue on a wall and then prying them off with a metal spatula, over and over This piece is a site-specific intervention to a room. On first entering the room, it appears speckled, and, upon further inspection, the viewer realizes that the entire surface of the room has been picked at fingertip-sized intervals (every wall and floor of the room). To pick uniformly, I first place dots of hot glue on the surface. Then, I pick the hot glue blisters off with a metal spatula.
The removal process revealed the history of the room hidden within the walls, including: a phrase written with pencil by one of the windows: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change”, a drawing of dandelions, brown drywall tape, a reflection of myself. Someone had put aluminum foil into the wall— creating a reflective surface. Imagining the wall as a skin, each removal formed part of a swarm and an exposed wound. The experience was meant to sublimate against the walls, but, through the rigor of the process, my hands blistered and, sometimes, bled. The wall became a mirror not only imagination, but in actuality. |
After my first year at RISD ended, I had to change studios and clean up my space. That change required me to remove my artwork, which required a complete transformation of the architecture of the room. I peeled all the paint from the walls in skins and also cut drywall out from the wall....
