The fantasy of ubiquity
2016
MDF, jesmonite, silicone, emulsion paint

This work references the visual language of standardized and mass-produced institutional furniture that defines and shapes our experience of public, common, and social space. The visibly handmade quality to the work, and therefore the implication of intensive labor, calls attention to the invisible naturalization of these forms within everyday life, and the resulting globalized social space.

 

Referring to the structure of a high school cafeteria table, I created a sculpture entirely from MDF. To create the cylindrical tube skeleton of the piece that mimics steel tubing, I made digital drawings, transformed them into templates for laser cutting, and innovated a process using templates with a router to achieve tube-shaped MDF.

 

The piece also features hand-cast jesmonite brackets and screw heads, as well as silicone cast chewing gum. By using materials like MDF, ghostly and inert objects are presented in stillness but allow for an animation to occur in the exploratory making processes and model-based creation.

 

Commenting on the material as much as the objects themselves, the attention to detail and engineered civil disobedience shown by elements like the chewing gum enable the work to take on a level of object-performance. My work explores issues of social space, belonging, and globalization though the use of motifs including schools, cities, and institutions to open up space for the exploration of radical futures.