milk teeth

corrugated paper brick : impression of interior structure and filled
porcelain; paperboard, hydrocal, milk | 2018

one-inch bubble, verso
porcelain | 2018

corrugated paperboard : impression of interior structure and filled
porcelain; paperboard, hydrocal, milk | 2018

honeycomb board : impression of exterior, impression of interior structure, and voids
porcelain, hydrocal, glass | 2018

honeycomb board : impression of exterior
porcelain | 2018

honeycomb board : impression of interior structure
porcelain | 2018

honeycomb board : voids
hydrocal, glass | 2018

honeycomb board : voids
hydrocal | 2018

honeycomb board : voids
glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, one-inch round : verso, voids, recto
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, one-inch round : voids
glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, serpentine : recto, voids, verso
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, serpentine : verso
porcelain | 2018

air pillow packaging, serpentine : voids
glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, round : two-inch, recto; one-and-a-half-inch, voids; two-inch, verso
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, round : one-and-a-half-inch, voids
glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, hexagonal : recto, voids, verso
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, hexagonal : recto
porcelain | 2018

air pillow packaging, hexagonal : verso
porcelain | 2018

air pillow packaging, hexagonal : voids
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, square : one-and-a-half-inch, from impromptu mold; two-inch, voids; two-inch, recto, shard
porcelain, glass | 2018

air pillow packaging, square : two-inch, voids
glass | 2018

indication of one-inch bubble
porcelain | 2018

quarter-inch bubble, impression
porcelain | 2018

corrugated cardboard, verso
porcelain | 2018

shard : indication of two-inch square air pillow packaging, lit and unlit
porcelain | 2018

one-inch bubble, verso ii
porcelain | 2018

milk teeth, installation view
2018

milk teeth : wall one (in three sections on three walls)
hydrocal, milk | 2018

milk teeth : wall one (sections two and three)
hydrocal, milk | 2018

milk teeth : wall two
hydrocal, milk | 2018

milk teeth : wall two, window, wall three
hydrocal, milk, glass | 2018

milk teeth : window
glass | 2018

milk teeth : wall three
glass | 2018

outliers

Venus (anti-static) | packing peanuts, glue, air | 65 inches tall | 2006

Foam peanuts, also known as packing peanuts or packing noodles, are a common loose-fill packaging and cushioning material used to prevent damage to fragile objects.

Venus (anti-static) | detail

mail (hauberk) | bubbles cut from bubble wrap, aluminum wire, polyolefin heat shrink tubing, metal findings | 48 inches wide x 36 inches tall x 14 inches deep | 2011

Bubble wrap is a pliable transparent plastic material commonly used for packing/mailing fragile items. Regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres (bubbles) provide cushioning for precious or breakable items.

Mail or chain mail is a type of armor consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. A hauberk is a shirt of mail armor.

mail(hauberk) | alternate view

mail(hauberk) | detail

mail(hauberk) | alternate view

216 cubic inches @ 38°15'21N 85°45'05W | expanded polystyrene beads sewn with nylon thread | 6 inch cube | 2013

216 cubic inches @ 38°15'21N 85°45'05W | alternate view

216 cubic inches @ 38°15'21N 85°45'05W | detail

small world

small world includes cyanotypes and sculptures that reflect my experience of agoraphobia. Using old and new maps, a blueprint of my house, skewed perception, and scale, I consider the knowability of the world, the beauty of attempts to represent one’s environment based on non-scientific data, and the reliability of representation. I use the cyanotype process because of its association with blueprints, which are employed in an attempt to create an objective representation of lived space, and because it is exposed outdoors in the sunlight, which requires engagement with a larger world than that with which an agoraphobic is comfortable.

The blueprint process is essentially the cyanotype process developed by the British astronomer and photographer Sir John Herschel in 1842. A photosensitive compound, a solution of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, is coated onto paper. Areas of the compound exposed to strong light are converted to insoluble blue ferric ferrocyanide, or Prussian blue. The soluble chemicals are washed off with water leaving a light-stable print.

A map is a visual representation of an area — a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes. Throughout history, people have created and used maps as essential tools to help them define, explain, and navigate their way through the world.

Agoraphobia (from Greek ἀγορά, "marketplace"; and φόβος/φοβία, -phobia) is an anxiety disorder characterized by anxiety in situations where the sufferer perceives the environment to be difficult or embarrassing to escape.

Borgian map of 1450 twice with blueprint of my house
cyanotype on Arches | 11.25 x 7 inches | edition of five | 2008

Bubble wrap with Tabula Rogeriana (1154)
cyanotype on Arches on cyanotype on wallboard | 11.5 x 11 inches | 2008

William Morris Snakeshead with Zheng He map
cyanotype on Arches on cyanotype on wallboard | 6 x 7.875 inches | 2008

soft world
cyanotype on Arches | 3.75 x 3.125 inches | edition of five | 2008

Ptolemaic map(1503)
cyanotype on Arches | 4.125 x 3.125 inches | 2008

Da ming hun yi tian xia quan tu (ca 1800) with chalk line
cyanotype on Arches | 10.25 x 6 inches | 2008

Fra Mauro mappa mundi 1457-1459
cyanotype on Arches 4 x 4.375 inches | edition of five | 2008

Charta Cosmographica, Cum Ventorum Propria Natura et Operatione(1574)
cyanotype on Arches | 4.75 x 3.825 inches | 2008

plan
cyanotype on Arches | 11.125 x 9.375 inches | edition of five | 2008

Orontius Finaeus map (1531)
cyanotype on Arches | 4 x 3.375 inches | 2008

the me and the not me
cyanotype on Arches | 5.5 x 3.5 inches | edition of five | 2008

Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Jido (1402) with blueprint of my house
cyanotype on Arches | 6.25 x 7 inches | edition of five | 2008

Hereford mappa mundi (ca. 1300)
cyanotype on Arches 2.875 x 3.375 inches | 2008

hard/soft worlds
cyanotype on Arches | 19.5 x 7.75 inches | edition of five | 2008

if the world were my house
cyanotype on Arches | 13.5 x 14 inches | edition of five | 2008

if my house were the world
cyanotype on Arches | 13.75 x 15.25 inches | edition of five | 2008

look outside (Waldseemuller world map, 1507) | cyanotype on rotating drum, LED, crank and mechanism, peephole, wood | 9.5 x 9.5 x 2.5 inches | 2008

detail of look outside (Waldseemuller world map, 1507)

root cellar

The Suburban Garden
by Adam Day

Beside the trim phlox and lamb’s ear -
where the sprinklers are on timer -
living bodies are buried
in the suburban garden. They are anchored
by engine blocks - the thick-fingered clowns.
Their dull heads swim
above the soil like moist bulbs
pulled into sunlight, veins bulging like guy wires
and their empire eyes have the overly intent
gaze of an evangelical. I have taken
their teeth. Their restless cocks
burrow below like root vegetables. Take this one
with the bit of spit at the corner
of his mouth; the scalp struggling grass
under gravel; the nose a flesh field
of sinkholes. When they see me coming
it’s as if they were sailors who, looking
overboard, saw in the waves, tigers’ mouths
gaping, rather than the vaginal blue wash
of the sea. I empathize with them; have myself
tied to the back porch, ears plugged, drenched
by endless buckets of salt water
while we’re teased with the naked ribcage
of a neighbor’s daughter. They are like the beetle
who one day woke to the horror
of a human body. And like the dead
they come to look like nobody, like a man
hiding his genitals between his legs.

root cellar
root vegetables cast in foam, gardening implements, fencing and fencing hardware, rope, chain, bug lightbulbs | installation view | 2007

beets/tree support strap

ginger root/barrier spikes, turnip/spade

turnip/spade

horseradish/fence ties

beet/baling hook, sweet potato/tree stake kit, horseradish/hand cultivator

beet/baling hook

sweet potato/tree stake kit

horseradish/hand cultivator

sweet potatoes/fence clamp

ginger/barbed wire

horseradish/hardware cloth/tension band/fence ties

turnips/fencing/fence tie

turnip and horseradish/tension bands

turnip and horseradish/tension bands | alternate view

sweet potatoes and turnip/poultry netting

root vegetables/mole trap

root vegetables/mole trap
alternate view

HOLD

I use industrial materials that hold - packaging, insulation, and upholstery - to address ideas of the body in space, the space of the body, and the space between bodies. I retain the original integrity of the materials to maintain their known associations, reframing them in form, arrangement, and scale. I work in series, using repetition and difference to focus on the materials’ inherent content manipulated in ways that refer to the body.

left to right - blanket (fiberglass insulation, construction lumber); gap filler (spray insulation, construction lumber), bustle (upholstery foam, upholstery springs), padding (dacron, edge roll, buttons, upholstery springs), packaging (polyethylene packing foam, cardboard box), void fill (fiberglass spray shipping foam, cardboard box, stretch wrap)
72 inches tall | 2007

left to right : packaging, blanket, bustle, gap filler

packaging, bustle, gap filler

foreground : padding

foreground : void fill

packaging

fenestrae
expanded polystyrene slices, nylon thread, light | 2007

fenestrae
detail

telangiectasia i-iv
polyethylene expansion strip, thread | each 3 x 16 inches
muse | void fill, thread | 1 x 1 inch | 2007

telangiectasia iv
detail

cradle i
altered Newton's Cradle, void fill, thread | 4.25 x 5.25 x 4.25 inches | 2007

cradle iv
detail

cradle vi
detail

cradle iii
detail

HOLD
Van de Graaf generator, electricity, polyethylene packaging foam, needles, oil-based clay | 2007

HOLD uses a Van de Graaff generator to charge the foam strips, which are then electrically attracted to the body of the viewer

fetish

fetish i
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish ii
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish iii
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish iv
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish v
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five| 2007

fetish vi
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish vii
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish viii
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish ix
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish x
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish xi
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

fetish xii
giclée print | 5 x 5 inches | edition of five | 2007

03.06.05

03.06.05
installation view | 2005

22.03.97
porcelain, cast iron, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

14.03.04
rubber, porcelain, light | 4.75 inches tall x 4.5 inches wide x 3.5 inches deep | 2005

01.10.97
stainless steel, rubber, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

01.10.02
foam, stainless steel, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

01.10.03
carbon steel, foam, light | 4 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

When God had made The Man,
he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over.
Then after that some angels got jealous
and chopped him into millions of pieces,
but he still glittered and hummed.
So they beat him down to nothing but sparks.
but each little spark had a shine and a song.
So they covered each one over with mud.
And the lonesomeness in the sparks
made them hunt for one another,
but the mud is deaf and dumb.

- Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

04.07.01
cotton, cast iron, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

25.09.95
wool felt, cotton, light | 3 inches tall x 2.75 inches wide | 2005

20.03.00
silk, wool felt, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

15.01.90
cast iron, cast glass, light | 3.25 inches high x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

06.02.02
cast glass, silk, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

18.03.01
beeswax, cast iron, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

07.08.97
cast iron, beeswax, light | 3.25 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide | 2005

15.08.96
rubber, lard, light | 3 inches tall x 4.5 inches wide | 2005

13.10.01
lard, rubber, light | dimensions variable | 2005

clay

MFA Thesis Exhibition | Installation view | 1997

MFA Thesis Exhibition | alternate view

Surfeit Seraph
ceramic | 96 x 48 x 40 inches | 1997

Becoming
unfired clay | dimensions variable | 1997

This work primarily references classical fine art iconography, including the Three Graces and the Odalisque or reclining nude, as framing devices in the representation of bodies out of control. I emphasize the objectification of the female form by presenting it in a socially unacceptable grotesque manner in the context of a format in which it has traditionally been idealized.

The unfired pieces are abstracted forms overwhelmed by chaotic excess, but still related to the body in terms of scale. I focus not on the finished object, but on the properties of the clay and the processes of creation and destruction. All the pieces are hollow, consisting of only a thin wall of clay, and while the inner space they define is not available to the viewer in most cases, it is a crucial element in creating the assumed presence of the body within. It is on the margin or buffer between the biological body and the outside world that my work focuses.

Slough
unfired clay, water | dimensions variable | 1997

The Three Graces
ceramic | 50 inches tall | 1996

Grace
ceramic | 50 inches tall | 1996

Grace
rear view

Loveliness
ceramic | 50 inches tall | 1996

Loveliness
rear view

Charm
ceramic | 50 inches tall | 1996

Charm | rear view