Stage right hangs a relief depicting puffin/humans engaging in a brawl on a duck boat while others float above in a communal dance.

This installation in the window space of Resort Gallery in downtown Baltimore reflects on the simulated environments of aquarium habitats and natural history dioramas. The awkward yet representational forms, narrative bas relief, recycled materials, intimate familiarity of things, and cool blue luminescence; work to create an imagined landscape.

Paradise Reclaimed uses the value of material to tell a story on a path through time and space. Independent elements employ visual and physical cues that unify the installation into an ever-unfolding constellation of connections between Iceland and America, the sacred and the profane, the ordinary world and the holy land.

Parallels (Retail) is a sculptural installation that references ‘art’ in retail situations and the fetishization of survivalist gear. The drawstring backpack was chosen as design contrary to the hard-wearing durational comfort of a backpacker’s bag, as these pieces are imagined as prototypes of an alternative brand to Iceland’s well-known, expensive and rugged 66° North. 39° North represents Baltimore’s geographic parallel, and the black trash bag/drawstring backpack more commonly found in an urban setting reflects survival and style in a culture with different values and priorities.

Inkjet prints on stainless steel
14" x 17"

The series REAPER represents an array of objects (including a dead puffin, car parts, organic matter, packing material and leather) arranged on a flat surface and photographed from above. The items selected for each composition represent contrasting qualities of physical texture and cultural value, which are pushed into the abstract realm as the photographic process blurs their defined boundaries and flattens their tactility. Ideas of value shift as the cheap poses for luxury and the natural becomes grotesque. 

Clay animation, burlap, cat litter, water, toilet, rubber, tape, iron, incense, inkjet prints on paper

Vision Quest Lundi: Flush/Flood is the second installment in the ongoing Vision Quest Lundi series, which is a wide-reaching narrative journey through marked stages of the ‘monomyth' (one true story) as detailed by the late Joseph Campbell. Vision Quest Lundi builds the framework for myth from facets of history, culture, religion and academics— accessing the spiritual qualities of disparately connected moments and placing them accordingly to function within a new system.

Vision Quest Lundi: Flush/Flood lies between two major points on a hypothetical map for the monomyth: the point where one looks outward for meaning (a person on some physical or mental precipice) and the following stage where one looks inward. These may present themselves metaphorically as a pier and a cave. Focusing on the high-intensity, circuitous movement in Formula 1 racing and the collective heart-pounding beat of Japanese drumming, this exhibition and performance express the possibility of physically progressing to the next stages by way of a meditative transcendence achieved through these activities. Rather than a clear and direct path, one exists between two spaces and finds balance which leads to transformation through repetition. 

Vision Quest Lundi: Baltimore  is a film, an exhibition, and a book that stem from the same narrative. Two characters participate in a ritual that is reminiscent of marriage, but draws imagery and action from diverse cultures which customizes the conditions of their communion. Religion, athletics, biography, art history and local Baltimore artists, are borrowed for their existing logic to assist in actions of joining and separating.

This project is the first in a series of works that travel the path of the ‘monomyth’, as detailed by Joseph Campbell.