My relationship with trauma and its passive effects on the self and body aid me in recalling the timeline of my existence. I’m able to see its presence within it – almost as if it was holding my hand every step of the way. Its presence was masked under a variety of facets, sometimes cleverly and other times blatantly. During the majority of this timeline, I was incapable of questioning or resisting it and instead remained susceptible to its imbuement into my body. Presently, I’ve acquired the ability to shift its position in front of me as opposed to next to me. We’re the same height and its eyes are level with mine.
I evoke the unconscious presence of interconnectivity between bodies existing in space through an interdisciplinary practice. Through my reclamation of personal, familial, and ancestral traumas - and proposing them as primary themes in my work - I explore how the divisions of art disciplines and other branches of knowledge hold the ability to make conscious these interconnectivities.
My work operates along two different planes of functionality: the personal and the collective. At times it asks for something. Other times it asks for nothing. In doing so, I attempt to open spaces of spontaneity in which an audience is welcomed to dynamically or statically collaborate in the activation of my work. For instance, my use of ceramic imprints or constructions depicting internal conflicts make public a vulnerability of the personal. Sculptures and installations tend to be fabricated in a way that involves suggested access to participation or modification. When performing, I am acknowledging the audience’s presence; approaching them, making eye contact, or speaking with them. They become just as involved in the performance space as I am.
The combination of a creative practice and fundamentals in research is pivotal in successfully articulating these interconnectivities. As such, emotional and physical bonds to my materials and research are essential. Recurring mediums such as ceramics, sculpture and installation, and performance allow for a more somatic relationship between myself and my work while themes of trauma grant access to an intimacy existing within my work’s contexts and concepts.
It’s important for me to continue to revisit my relationship to trauma and reacknowledge my own connectivity to existence. The solitude of the studio operates as a space in which I am able to do so. There’s an intimate significance in the effects of the physical and mental labor experienced in this space that I find necessary to encounter prior to a work becoming public. If I am to place my vulnerabilities on display, I must have a dialogue with them first. In this way, my work is initially functioning along a personal plane. When my work enters the public realm, I generate a space. However, this space awaits an activation suggested by the collaboration from a collective bodies’ insertion into that space. Such is the nature of art; individuals are expected, maybe even required, to ponder beyond the minimum of presented content. The themes of trauma influence the tone of these ponderings and evolve the space into one of perceived safety for the artist and one of vulnerability between the artist and those present. Each person is capable of vulnerability, and a developing yearning to be seen offers access to this notion of interconnectivity between those in this space. Functioning along a now collective plane, the entire art transitions from themed content to a collective experience between artist, artwork, and participants.