I am interested in visual dichotomies, the spectacle of consumerism, and the ways in which class distinctions are represented and glorified. A few formative years spent as an amusement park Carney lent me an appreciation of the power of garish surfaces to attract attention while simultaneously masking whatever unsavory realities lay beneath their carnivalesque exteriors. Later, a career making props and dressing theater sets afforded me a view into a world where the distances between the audience and what unfolds on stage create spaces where uncomfortable ideas can be examined in a non-threatening environment.
I’m interested in harnessing art’s power of the uncanny to introduce these kinds of theatrical moments into life. I am primarily influenced by the historical movements of Lettrism and Situationism, which sought to introduce art into life as a means to form ruptures into everyday patterns.
I’m more concerned with ideas than objects, and my work is frequently performative and/or installed in unsanctioned spaces. Projects tend to be large in scale and often executed in concert with other artists. I’ve worked with groups like NSAT, replacing the imagery on illegal billboards with artwork, and with loose collectives that promote uncommodifiable “gift art”, mounting unauthorized gallery shows in the subway systems. I struggle to find a way to make art politically and culturally useful, if only on the smallest of scales, and to find an ethical balance between creating work that lives out in the world that it talks about while doing the least amount of damage to the spaces it inhabits.
